H.R. 1428 — Poverty Line Act of 2025

This section establishes the short title of the Act as the “Poverty Line Act of 2025.”

This section states the purpose of the Act is to update the Federal poverty line under 42 U.S.C. 9902(2) so that it better reflects the costs of basic needs, regional differences in the cost of living, and current household spending patterns, and so that more households qualify for Federal assistance and benefits.

This section revises the definition of the poverty line under the Community Services Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)) by replacing the existing definition with a new methodology that requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in coordination with the Bureau of the Census, to revise and publish the poverty line at least annually. As background, the poverty line is used to determine eligibility for the Community Services Block Grant program and other federal programs. The new formula would calculate poverty lines for household sizes of 1 to 8 members using: (1) a 5-year rolling average of household expenditures for food, clothing, telephone, and internet, based on 83 percent of the 47th through 53rd percentiles of Consumer Expenditure Survey spending and adjusted by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers; (2) the cost of rental housing based on Fair Market Rents under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f); (3) child care costs for up to 6 children under age 5; (4) out-of-pocket health costs for up to 6 household members enrolled in employer-sponsored coverage; (5) premiums and, to the extent practicable, out-of-pocket costs for up to 6 household members not enrolled in employer-sponsored coverage or eligible for Medicare; and (6) Medicare Advantage premiums and, to the extent practicable, out-of-pocket costs for up to 6 Medicare-eligible household members. For households with more than 8 members, the Secretary would calculate an average incremental cost for each additional member. The section also requires the Secretary to use State-level data, available county-level data, and, for certain health coverage factors, geographic rating area data, and to produce geographic variants of the poverty line. It directs the Secretary to set an “other basic goods” factor at the county level at not less than 1.2, authorizes alternative data sources when specified sources do not accurately reflect significant economic changes, and requires multipliers to reflect economies or diseconomies of scale. It further permits simplified poverty line variants for administrative use, requires HHS to provide a public lookup tool, allows States to revise the poverty line for block grant purposes to no more than 125 percent of the official poverty line, and establishes a 2-year safe harbor preventing a lower poverty line from applying when a participant moves between geographic areas. It also prohibits the Secretary from setting any State or county poverty line below the pre-enactment poverty line, adjusted for inflation.

This section directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to submit, not later than 1 year after the effective date of the Act, a report to Congress identifying Federal laws and regulations that use the Federal poverty line under 42 U.S.C. § 9902(2) to determine eligibility for Federal programs and recommending which of those authorities should be updated to reflect the changes made by the Act.

This section directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to evaluate the efficacy of the poverty line used for Community Services Block Grant eligibility under 42 U.S.C. § 9902(2), as amended by this Act, in the 4th year after the Act’s effective date and at least once every 4 years thereafter. It also requires the Secretary to publish a report on each evaluation and to propose any change to the poverty line that would better achieve the purpose of the Act.

This section establishes that nothing in the Act may be construed to prevent the Bureau of the Census or any other Federal agency from collecting, calculating, or publishing other poverty measures for other purposes.

This section delays the effective date of this Act and the amendment made by this Act until 3 years after the date of enactment. (Thus, the Act’s provisions would not take effect immediately upon enactment.)