H.R. 5830 — Guaranteed Income Pilot Program Act of 2025

This section states congressional findings on financial instability among American households due to income volatility (defined as an annual fluctuation of 25% or more), rising living costs, wage stagnation, lack of affordable housing, and economic shifts such as the gig economy and automation. The findings cite statistics including that two-thirds of Americans could not cover one month's living expenses without their primary income source, 57% of adults (79% of millennials and 85% of Generation Z) cannot cover a $1,000 emergency expense, full-time minimum wage earners cannot afford a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the U.S., and federal COVID-19 stimulus significantly reduced material hardships such as food insufficiency (by over 40%), financial instability (by 45%), and adverse mental health symptoms (by 20%).

This section establishes a three-year pilot program, administered by the Secretary in consultation with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, to provide guaranteed monthly income payments to 20,000 eligible individuals selected based on criteria developed by the Secretary. Of those participants, 10,000 receive monthly cash payments on the 15th of each month equal to the fair market rent for a two-bedroom home in their ZIP Code (or a substantially similar amount). The Commissioner provides the Secretary access to participants' tax records and updates on changes to their taxable income; the Secretary selects an external partner with expertise in mixed-methods experimental design and cash-transfer programs to assist with program design, administration, and evaluation, treating the partner as a federal employee for tax data confidentiality purposes (under IRC §6103) and authorizing data collection for required studies and reports. Any payments received are disregarded as income or resources for 12 months when determining eligibility (or benefit amounts) under any federal program or federally assisted state or local program.

This section directs the Secretary, in collaboration with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and an external partner, to conduct a study on outcomes of the pilot program under section 3 (i.e., monthly income subsidy for eligible individuals). It requires an interim report to Congress not later than 24 months after eligible individuals begin participating and a final report not later than 12 months after the program's conclusion. The final report must include (1) an analysis of the subsidy's effects on participants' micro-economic outcomes, health, and social costs of income volatility (e.g., connections to housing, education, employment, childcare), as well as the feasibility of expanding the program to more participants; and (2) results of interviews and focus groups with consenting participants.

This section defines terms for purposes of the Act, including: (1) Commissioner as the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service; (2) eligible individual as an individual taxpayer between the ages of 18 and 65; (3) external partner as a non-partisan research agency or a non-profit academic institution with expertise in social science experimentation; (4) fair market rent as the applicable fair market rent established under section 8(c) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (i.e., for the Housing Choice Voucher program); and (5) Secretary as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.