The 10 Promises › Proposal 6 › Legislative Outline

6. Citizens First Benefits Act: Legislative Outline

Model Legislative Outline, not final bill text. It needs drafting by legislative counsel. Version 2.1, revised November 4, 2026.

This Act may be cited as the “Citizens First Benefits Act”.

Purpose

To guarantee citizens never get less than non-citizens, to make welfare a bridge back to work, and to end the conflict of interest of voting on one’s own cash welfare.

Principal Requirements

Sec. 4. Citizen parity

• No federal benefit may be given to a non-citizen on terms more generous than those offered to a citizen who meets the same income, residency, and need tests.
• Conforming amendments to 8 U.S.C. 1611 et seq.

Sec. 5. Work requirement

• Able-bodied adults ages 18 to 64 without a dependent child under 6 must work, train, or search for work 20 hours a week to keep SNAP or TANF benefits.
• Exempt: people unable to work for medical reasons, pregnant women, and caregivers of a disabled family member.
• Amends 7 U.S.C. 2015(o) and 42 U.S.C. 607.

Sec. 6. No conflict of interest at the ballot box

• A covered individual may not vote in an election for federal office for which he or she is covered (see “Measurement period” and “Covered individual”). Coverage is decided separately for each election, using that election’s measurement period, and continues until eligibility is restored under this section.
• Measurement period: the 6 months immediately before the voter-registration deadline for the election. It begins on the same calendar day 6 months before the deadline and ends on the day before the deadline. Where a State has same-day or election-day registration, the deadline is treated as 30 days before election day.
• Restoration: a person is eligible again, automatically and without re-registering, for any federal election whose voter-registration deadline falls at least 6 months after the last month in which the person received means-tested cash welfare; or immediately, for any election, on a showing that means-tested cash welfare was not more than half of the person’s income in the measurement period.
• Reporting and advance notice: each month, agencies running covered programs report enrollment and exits to state election officials. A person who has received cash welfare for 4 consecutive months receives an advisory notice explaining the rule and how to submit income records.
• Determination and notice: the state election official makes the determination at the registration deadline and mails (and, where available, emails) written notice within 5 days, with the reason, the records relied on, and how to correct or appeal.
• Correction: a person may submit records at any time (such as pay stubs, tax returns, or a benefit statement) showing that he or she was not covered; agencies and the State must correct reporting errors within 5 business days.
• Appeal: to the state election official within 10 days of the notice, decided within 10 days and before election day; then expedited review in state or federal court. A voter with a pending appeal may cast a provisional ballot, counted if the appeal succeeds.
• Exempt benefits never count toward the test.
• Takes effect on ratification of the amendment in Part B.

Part B. House Joint Resolution: amendment

• Sec. 1: Congress may by law provide that a citizen of working age whose income, during the six months immediately before the deadline to register to vote in an election for federal office, consisted principally of means-tested cash assistance from government, may not vote in that election; and may provide by law for the restoration of eligibility, notice, correction of records, and appeal.
• Sec. 2: No such law shall count benefits earned through work or service, including Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and veterans’ benefits, or disability benefits.
• Ratification by three-fourths of the States within 7 years.

Definitions and Eligibility

• “Comparable benefit”: any federal public benefit under 8 U.S.C. 1611(c).
• “Means-tested cash welfare”: cash assistance conditioned on low income, such as TANF cash assistance. Not SNAP, Medicaid, housing aid, refundable tax credits, or exempt benefits.
• “Measurement period”: for each federal election, the 6 months immediately before the voter-registration deadline for that election, beginning on the same calendar day 6 months before the deadline and ending on the day before it.
• “Covered individual”: for a given federal election, a citizen ages 18 to 64 who received means-tested cash welfare in every month of the measurement period, when that welfare was more than half of the person’s income in the measurement period; or a person covered for an earlier election whose eligibility has not yet been restored under Sec. 6.
• “Exempt benefits”: Social Security, Medicare, veterans’ benefits, disability benefits (including SSI based on disability), unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, and other benefits earned by work or service.

Existing Law Affected

• Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (8 U.S.C. 1611 et seq.)
• Food and Nutrition Act (7 U.S.C. 2015); Social Security Act title IV-A (42 U.S.C. 607)
• Title 52, U.S. Code (voting)

Implementation Timeline

• Secs. 4 and 5: 1 year after enactment.
• Sec. 6: federal elections after ratification of Part B.

Responsible Agencies

Department of Agriculture; Department of Health and Human Services; state election officials; Election Assistance Commission.

Enforcement and Appeals

Individuals may correct records at any time and appeal any determination to state election officials and then to state or federal court on an expedited basis. Agencies must correct reporting errors within 5 business days.

Fiscal Implications

Work requirements reduce outlays; parity may raise or lower outlays depending on the benefit. No official estimate yet. See the fiscal appendix.

See the fiscal appendix for cited estimates.

Constitutional Questions

The voting pause requires a constitutional amendment under current doctrine; see the plank page.

Current doctrine. States set voter qualifications (Article I, Section 2; Seventeenth Amendment; Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council, 2013). Restrictions on the vote among otherwise-qualified citizens get strict scrutiny (Kramer v. Union Free School District, 1969), and wealth or payment cannot be a voting qualification (Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, 1966; Twenty-fourth Amendment). Under current doctrine a federal statute imposing the pause would very likely be struck down.

Mechanism required. A constitutional amendment authorizing Congress to set this qualification for federal elections, ratified by three-fourths of the States.

Legislative Instrument Required

Bill (H.R.) with a Senate companion bill (S.), plus a House Joint Resolution (Article V amendment).

Severability: if any provision, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the rest of the measure and its other applications are not affected.

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