Publications

overturned nearly three years ago, ending the federal constitutional right to abortion. The consequences of lost access to this essential care have been devastating. States with abortion restrictions tend to have the stingiest public benefits supports for growing families. This map shows that 10 of the 12 states with the stingiest TANF cash benefits also have the harshest abortion restrictions.

Postsecondary education is more than just a pathway to a degree—for many parents, it is a dream for their children’s future. Yet the soaring costs of higher education have made this dream increasingly unattainable, forcing families to rely on risky borrowing options like the Federal Direct Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (Parent PLUS). Parent PLUS disproportionately saddles low-income parents and parents of color with immense, often unrepayable debt. Parents can face wage garnishment or risk losing a significant source of income—part of their Social Security benefits. This system can warp the promise of postsecondary education into an intergenerational burden. This brief proposes four recommendations to improve the Parent PLUS program and help ensure students and their parents are not driven into debt-burdened poverty to access higher education.

Parent PLUS, the only federal financial aid option designed for parents in the United States, can open doors to higher education. But for parents with low incomes and parents of color, Parent PLUS imposes serious risks—including crushing, unrepayable debt that can put rent, groceries, and retirement in jeopardy. This blog post outlines four policy recommendations to protect Parent PLUS borrowers, prioritize racial equity, and mitigate harm. Policymakers must act to make sure college is a pathway to opportunity—not an intergenerational financial nightmare.

Led by Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) and Congresswoman Stephanie Bice (R-OK), the House Bipartisan Paid Family Leave Working Group’s I-PLAN proposal is a promising step. The proposal recognizes the importance of investing in state paid leave programs. Strengthening these programs is a crucial step toward building systems that provide meaningful support for working people and their families.

An accurate census ensures fair political representation and distribution of over $2 trillion in federal funds to states and local governments each year. But certain communities–including Black and Hispanic/Latino communities, low-income households, recent immigrants, and people with disabilities–are regularly undercounted. This brief, the third in a three-part series on census accuracy, provides a summary of key results and trends in accuracy from the 2020 Census and prior censuses.

An accurate census ensures fair political representation and distribution of over $2 trillion in federal funds to states and local governments each year. But certain communities–including Black and Hispanic/Latino communities, low-income households, recent immigrants, and people with disabilities–are regularly undercounted. This brief, the first in a three-part series on census accuracy, explains the fundamental concepts needed to interpret the accuracy of census data; such as net and gross accuracy and differential undercounts.

An accurate census ensures fair political representation and distribution of over $2 trillion in federal funds to states and local governments each year. But certain communities–including Black and Hispanic/Latino communities, low-income households, recent immigrants, and people with disabilities–are regularly undercounted. This brief, the second in a three-part series on census accuracy, describes the Bureau’s evaluation methods: Demographic Analysis and the Post-Enumeration Survey.

Since the overturning of Roe vs. Wade in 2022, many low-income women have nowhere to turn: they face the economic repercussions of being denied abortion care and lack access to the support they need to care for a growing family. This brief looks at how abortion bans and insufficient public benefits at the state level affect women and families. It finds that states with abortion bans often do not provide enough supportive resources for growing families, like health care, food assistance, and cash support. The brief also offers federal policy recommendations to help families meet their everyday needs—no matter what state they live in.

Eliminating poverty in America is within reach, and a reimagined Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program is key to achieving it. TANF can provide critical support to low-income families, but systemic barriers—like work requirements, complex applications, and inadequate cash assistance—limit its effectiveness. This fact sheet outlines how transforming TANF to focus on direct cash support, racial and gender equity, and reducing administrative burdens can improve the economic well-being of millions of low-income families and address the deep-rooted inequalities that disproportionately affect communities of color.

Medicaid-funded home- and community-based services make it possible for people with disabilities and older adults to live in their own homes and communities, where most people prefer to live. A long-standing direct care worker shortage, caused by low pay and poor working conditions and worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, threatens access to direct care. State and local governments are innovating to respond to the care crisis. This brief highlights a selection of state best practices to improve wages for direct care workers in Medicaid-funded HCBS programs and help solve the workforce crisis. By raising wages, providing good benefits, and increasing job quality for direct care workers, who are disproportionately women and women of color, states can start to build a direct care system in which all consumers, workers, and families can thrive.