States are now in the process of preparing to implement parts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which achieved some of the most significant pro-work reforms to America’s social welfare system in decades. Elevating work and self-reliance in food stamps and Medicaid is essential, but it’s only a first step. Congress and the president must now embrace state innovation to lead America into a new era of reform that reduces government dependence, supercharges upward mobility, and strengthens the American dream.

The bill creates work requirements for a targeted subset of able-bodied Medicaid participants and expands similar requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — still focused on work-capable adults. Work-based self-reliance has been the aspirational goal of th

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