H.R. 6949 — Upward Mobility Act of 2026

This section establishes a pilot program authorizing the Secretary of Health and Human Services (through the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families) to permit up to five states (including the District of Columbia) to receive Upward Mobility Grants to consolidate specified federal antipoverty funding sources—known as covered amounts—into pilot projects promoting antipoverty objectives. Covered amounts include state allocations for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) family assistance grants; Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) or Social Security Act child care funds; Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) grants under specified sections; Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) dislocated worker assistance; community development block grants; public housing agency allocations for tenant-based Section 8 assistance and public housing Capital and Operating Funds; and Section 521 rural housing assistance (excluding any amounts directed to Indian tribes, as defined in 25 U.S.C. 5304). (Thus, states may blend these funds to reduce benefit cliffs—limiting Marginal Effective Tax Rates, or the percentage of additional earned income offset by benefit reductions and taxes—and to increase participant employment, earnings, skills acquisition, housing affordability, nutrition access, reduced home energy costs, child care affordability, and temporary low-income family assistance, while providing incentives to lower per-capita direct assistance, defined as total pilot direct assistance benefits divided by state population.)

This section establishes definitions and transfer authorities for antipoverty functions and funding in connection with state pilot projects under the Act, including the Administration for Children and Families (ACF, within HHS), covered federal agencies administering antipoverty programs (e.g., TANF, SNAP), and the Secretary of HHS acting through the ACF Assistant Secretary. It (1) requires covered agency heads to transfer administrative funding to each participating state pro rata based on the state's share of the prior fiscal year's nonadministrative program costs (with adjustments for appropriation lapses and limited-scope pilots); (2) transfers to ACF a portion of covered agency functions—as determined by OMB—including related personnel, assets, contracts, records, and unexpended balances (subject to 31 U.S.C. 1531); (3) authorizes the Secretary to delegate transferred functions, reorganize ACF, prescribe rules, and use transition services and funds; and (4) provides savings clauses preserving existing legal documents, proceedings, and applications in effect or pending at enactment.