California policymakers are considering following in the federal government’s footsteps and making it harder for vulnerable families to get food, health care, and housing.
This spring, federal policy changes are set to strip millions of Californians of benefits they depend on. Under the 2025 Republican megabill, H.R. 1, an estimated 665,000 CalFresh recipients — 70% of those currently subject to time limits — could lose food assistance after just three months if they cannot satisfy work reporting requirements. Starting in January 2027, roughly 1.4 million adults could be dropped from Medi-Cal under new federal work reporting requirements. And new rules being proposed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development could add widespread work requirements and time limits to rental assistance programs, threatening housing stability for many more.
These cuts are coming whether California wants them or not. The question now is whether our state will follow in the federal government’s footsteps and proactively choose to impose work requirements on even more Californians.
Because let’s be clear about what “work requirements” actually means. The phrase is designed to hide what’s really happening — they are cuts. State policymakers should do everything they can to streamline new federal requirements and refuse to pile on with more of their own.
The research on “work requirements” is consistent: they do not increase employment. When states have added work requirements to safety net programs, the number of people working doesn’t go up — but the number of people receiving benefits drops sharply. That’s by design. When families can’t navigate the paperwork — because of an unstable work schedule, a missed notice, a language barrier, or a sick child — they lose their benefits.
Most people who can work, do. However, many hold the kinds of jobs that don’t fit neatly into a 20-hours-a-week checkbox: seasonal farmworkers whose hours shift with the harvest, home health aides without guaranteed weekly schedules due to shifting patient needs, parents cobbling together gig work between caregiving responsibilities and their child care schedule, or retail workers who want to work consistent hours but whose employers do not provide stable scheduling and so their hours fluctuate widely each week. Others are managing a disability that hasn’t been formally documented but consequences are just as real. The additional “work requirements” don’t see any of that. It just cuts off vital benefits.
At the same time, every new eligibility requirement lands on county administrators who are already overwhelmed managing federal changes and new costs shifted to them by the state government. These changes are estimated to add an additional $6-$9.5 billion of costs every year to counties because of H.R. 1. More verification steps mean more chances for error and more families going without food or health care through no fault of their own — just understaffed, over-burdened offices.
California is already bracing for the harm coming from these requirements in H.R. 1 and others like the ones proposed by HUD. Instead of doing everything possible to mitigate the harm coming from the federal government and support Californians, the governor has proposed to extend the federal work requirements onto immigrants who receive health care through a program funded only by state dollars — a harmful choice he does not have to make.
Policymakers can chart a different path than the federal government, one that protects Californians’ access to basic supports like housing, health care, and food assistance by refusing to create new work requirements beyond what federal law requires. Policymakers can also streamline and automate verification so that qualifying for help doesn’t require an obstacle course for families to navigate.
Even with those actions, people will still fall through the cracks and lose access due to federally-imposed work requirements. Instead of imposing additional harm, policymakers can champion policies that protect every Californian by pursuing equitable revenue policies that ensure the most profitable corporations and wealthiest Californians are contributing their fair share in state taxes. State leaders should do everything they can to support every Californian, not just the wealthy and corporations. These revenues can go towards state-funded benefits to make sure that everyone has access to the supports they need to survive.
