Poverty Line Act of 2025
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Poverty Line Act of 2025 replaces the Community Services Block Grant Act poverty-line definition. HHS, in coordination with the Census Bureau, must revise and publish the poverty line at least annually for household sizes one through eight. The formula uses a five-year rolling average of Consumer Expenditure Survey spending on food, clothing, telephone, and internet around the middle of the distribution, CPI-U inflation, an other-basic-goods factor, rental housing costs appropriate to household size, and regional cost-of-living variation. OMB must report within one year on federal laws and regulations that use the poverty line and should be updated, and HHS must evaluate the formula in the fourth year and at least every four years afterward.
Who Benefits and How
Low-income households benefit if a more realistic poverty line expands eligibility for federal assistance and benefits. Benefit applicants in high-cost regions benefit because regional cost variation can be reflected in poverty thresholds. Anti-poverty organizations benefit from a federal measure that better reflects internet, telephone, housing, and other basic costs. Program administrators benefit from OMB's transition report identifying laws and regulations tied to the poverty line.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Department of Health and Human Services must publish annual poverty-line updates using the new formula. The Census Bureau must coordinate data inputs for the revised poverty measure. The Office of Management and Budget must review affected federal laws and regulations and report recommended updates. Federal and State benefit programs may face higher enrollment and spending if poverty thresholds rise. Federal taxpayers bear the cost of expanded eligibility for programs tied to the poverty line.
Key Provisions
- Amends the statutory poverty-line definition to use modern household expenditure and housing-cost components.
- Requires annual HHS publication of poverty lines for household sizes one through eight.
- Requires OMB to report federal laws and regulations that should be updated for the new measure.
- Requires HHS evaluation in the fourth year and at least every four years afterward.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Rewrites the federal poverty line formula to reflect modern basic needs, household spending data, housing costs, regional cost differences, annual updates, OMB transition reporting, and periodic HHS evaluation.
Key Policy Areas
Social Welfare, Poverty Measurement, Federal Benefits
Primary Purpose
Rewrites the federal poverty line formula to reflect modern basic needs, household spending data, housing costs, regional cost differences, annual updates, OMB transition reporting, and periodic HHS evaluation.
Policy Domains
Resolution provisions
Identified Gains
- Low-income households
- High-cost-region applicants
- Anti-poverty organizations
- Program administrators
Identified Costs
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Bureau of the Census
- Office of Management and Budget
- State benefit programs
- Federal taxpayers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Mullin (for himself, Ms. Norton, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Magaziner, …
Referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce, and in …
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
High-cost-region applicants, Low-income households
Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Management and Budget
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology