In July 2025, Congress passed its “One Bill” reconciliation package, mandating policies with serious consequences for states, workers, and families. Under the new law, individuals seeking training and employment will face stricter access to limited benefits essential to their well-being, their ability to train and work, and their opportunity to prosper. This federal misstep underscores the responsibility of state leaders to use every tool at their disposal to mitigate the law’s harmful effects.
State leaders don’t need to wait to respond. Workforce advocates can direct state leaders to NSC’s recommendations below as strategies that can be advanced today to protect workers and families.
While some states have called for special sessions to address the law’s cuts and work provisions, most continue to hold, looking for direction on the best way forward. This is where state advocates can step up – we must engage, educate, and hold state leaders accountable to their responsibilities to defend access to skills training and basic needs – and the power in their hands to realize this. And we must do so in unity with others.
NSC understands that workforce policy is about more than work – it’s also about working people and their well-being. This belief is the root of our network-based approach and the reason why we organize a broad coalition with a diverse set of stakeholders. Now more than ever, state workforce advocates must unite with partners across other systems, including education, safety net, and healthcare, to reinforce consensus in opposition to the law’s provisions. Every stakeholder in the workforce, education, and safety net sectors has a stake in the outcomes of this law. Together, we can direct state leaders to make decisions that strengthen local workers, businesses, and communities.
NSC is actively partnering with SkillSPAN leads and cross-sector advocates in states across the country to advance the actions below and encourage others interested in contributing to these efforts to reach out.
Recommendation #1: Apply Work Requirements Only to the Extent Mandated by Law
While the reconciliation bill mandated work requirements for both SNAP and Medicaid, states still have some discretion on how and when these provisions are applied. Medicaid work requirements are mandated to go into effect starting January 2027. However, USDA guidance is still needed to mandate the start date and finalize provisions for SNAP work requirements. To protect access to basic needs, advocates should direct state leaders to hold on implementing new SNAP and Medicaid work requirements earlier than mandated by law, and direct states to refrain from exceeding federal minimum requirements.
SkillSPAN partners have already begun organizing efforts to advance this recommendation in states, prioritizing the building of cross-sector tables to effectively educate agency leaders on the potential impacts of their decisions.
The Colorado Center on Law and Policy established a multi-sector working group on new SNAP and Medicaid work requirements and surveyed members to gather insights on the provision’s impact across systems and opportunities for cross-program alignment. The group plans to identify actions to advance collectively and have engaged with leaders at the state’s Departments of Public Health and Health Care Policy and Financing.
The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute lifted up a similar coalition in response to the unprecedented impact it’s expected to have on residents and as state leaders, including Governor Kemp, name their support for the law. The group has proactively met with officials at the Department of Human Services alongside a diverse set of partners including community partners representing immigrant, refugee, and Latin American populations, legal services, workforce boards, and foodbanks.
Several SkillSPAN partners are leveraging existing relationships with food aid advocates to strategically align priorities with workforce advocates, similar to the approach taken in Georgia. The Indiana Skills2Compete Coalition is working closely with Feeding Indiana Hungry as co-leads of the Indiana Hunger Coalition, while the United Ways of Texas is leveraging its partnership with Feeding Texas as co-chair of the state Food Policy Roundtable. Basic needs are workforce needs and effectively advocating at this moment will require advocates to show state leaders how these two systems together can and must serve workers and families.
Recommendation #2: Ensure Training and Education Count as ‘Work’ under SNAP
State discretion around SNAP work requirements includes the power to define eligible activities for ‘work.’ Official SNAP rules allow for a wide range of “work activities,” such as (but not limited to) education, skills training, job search, and apprenticeships. However, some states – fail to recognize or apply these allowances to provisions, disqualifying otherwise eligible individuals from benefits simply because they are in school or training.
State advocates must ensure that their SNAP agency correctly defines and promotes education and training as qualifying activities, especially as new work requirements are implemented. This protects low-income individuals who are in school or training from losing access to SNAP benefits unnecessarily and further aligns state SNAP policy with workforce goals.
Recommendation #3: Maximize Use of Federal Funds and Expand SNAP E&T
The SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) program provides SNAP participants with access to training and support services to help them enter or move up in the workforce. The program can also help reduce barriers to work by providing support services, like transportation and childcare, as participants prepare and obtain employment.
E&T was not impacted by the Reconciliation bill, and through this program, states continue to have access to two powerful funding streams that are routinely left on the table.
Now is the time to maximize these funds to minimize the impact of the reconciliation bill’s limitations on basic needs required to access and complete high-quality training and employment. In Maryland, Governor Wes Moore vowed to use all tools available at the state level to insulate residents from fallout of the law. The state’s health and human service agencies have also shared their interests in preserving access to basic needs and exploring SNAP E&T as a strategy to do so while strengthening the workforce system as well. State leaders have already been in touch with advocates, like the Maryland Center on Economic Policy, and are proactively looking to community partners as a resource to strengthen the state’s strategies.
Recommendation #4: Direct WIOA Governor’s Reserve Funds to Workforce Development Priorities
States have discretion over 15% of their WIOA Title I funds, often referred to as the Governor’s Reserve Funds. These funds can be used for a variety of eligible uses including innovative training models, apprenticeships, and services that expand access to training.
As some states hold on their response to the reconciliation law, workforce advocates can point to WIOA Governor’s reserve funds as a lever that can be pulled to strengthen economic prosperity. In states with upcoming gubernatorial elections, advocates can build pressure on governors to pull this lever (and use the other tools available to them) to hold them accountable for supporting workers and families.
The Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County led an advocacy campaign earlier this year directing state leaders to the use of these funds in response to federal cuts and freezes to funding. Suggested uses included support of sector-based partnerships in high-growth industries, increased alignment of credential systems with employers’ needs, and the promotion and measuring of job quality standards.
Recommendation #5: Ensure Workforce Pell Expansion Does Not Lead to a Net Loss in Student Support
A bright spot of the reconciliation bill was the expansion of Workforce Pell (federal Pell grants for short-term training programs). This is a priority that NSC’s network has long advocated for and reflects the impact demonstrated by existing state investments in short-training programs.
Workforce Pell implementation is expected to begin in the states in July 2026. NSC is actively working on guidance for state leaders and advocates to ensure implementation decisions supporting meaningful access and affordability to short-term training programs for all learners. Stay tuned for more resources and recommendations on maximizing Workforce Pell.
In the meantime, states may respond to newly expanded federal Pell grants with cuts to their own investments in short-term training, leading to a net loss in student support. To protect (and potentially grow) the ecosystem relied upon by learners, states should preserve investments in priorities that help students succeed, like basic needs, navigators, data infrastructure, and industry engagement.
The reconciliation law reinforces a harmful narrative that people pursuing education, training, and employment – especially those facing economic insecurity – are undeserving of support. Our shared work must challenge this narrative by showing that access to training, and basic needs is essential for workers, businesses, and communities to prosper. That means workforce advocates must organize with cross-sector partners to reduce the harm of the bill and strengthen the outcomes of workers and families.
Reach out to NSC’s State Strategies Team to learn more about the recommendations, efforts taking place in states, and how you can contribute to advocacy.
