https://washingtonsun.com/missouri Missouri en-US Mon, 07 Sep 2026 18:58:02 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/2026-election/missouri-supreme-court-appeal-redistricting Jenna Monnin People Not Politicians Missouri says the state’s high court was right to reject a map favoring Republicans this fall. Mon, 07 Sep 2026 18:58:02 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/2026-election/missouri-supreme-court-appeal-redistricting A citizens group fighting a Republican-led redistricting effort in Missouri is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a request from GOP state officials to allow new maps to go into effect ahead of the midterms.

Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that voters should elect members of Congress from a 2022 map, not the new map passed by the state legislature during a special session in September 2025. Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule the state court’s decision.

Missouri was one of the first states to take up President Donald Trump’s call to engage in mid-decade redistricting efforts ahead of the midterms. The new map would probably give Republicans seven of the state’s eight U.S. House seats, one more than they hold now, by slicing 11-term Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City district into three parts.

People Not Politicians Missouri, which sued the state over the redistricting plan and the state’s rejection of a petition to put the issue on the November ballot, responded Monday to a petition in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the state high court’s decision.That was the deadline the group had been given by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who covers this region for emergency appeals.

“Now that the Missouri Supreme Court has rejected [Hoskins’] gambit, he asks this Court to deliver him the political victory to which he was never entitled under the Missouri Constitution,” People Not Politicians Missouri asserts in the filing. “This Court cannot and should not reward the Secretary’s scheme to outsmart Missouri voters, Missouri law, and the Missouri Supreme Court by granting Applicants the extraordinary relief they seek.”

The citizens group — which collected over 300,000 signatures from Missouri residents to force a referendum on the November ballot — accused Hoskins of filing a last-minute appeal “in the hopes of running out the clock on the judiciary’s tolerance for a last-minute reversion to the 2022 districts.”

The group argues that the Hoskins’ decision to block its “timely” referendum from the November ballot violated state laws that give “voters the power to suspend legislation through the referendum process.”

The state Supreme Court ruled that the old 6-2 map must be used in November’s general election — even though candidates had already won primaries in the newly drawn districts — and also required the referendum to be placed on the ballot.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, who filed the appeal to the federal high court, said the state Supreme Court’s decision disenfranchised Missouri voters.

The map switch from the primaries could create a potential political headache for the state, but proponents of the ballot referendum said it's a necessary measure to ensure “the people [have] the ultimate say over matters that concern their political representation.”]]> https://washingtonsun.com/missouri/missouri-asks-scotus-to-allow-new-republican-congressional-map-for-midterms Associated Press The appeal comes after Missouri's highest court blocked the new map and ordered a statewide vote in November on whether to keep or reject it. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 10:42:13 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/missouri/missouri-asks-scotus-to-allow-new-republican-congressional-map-for-midterms By Lindsay Whitehurst and David A. Lieb

Missouri appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to allow the use of new congressional districts backed by President Donald Trump in the fast-approaching midterm election.

The appeal comes after Missouri's highest court blocked the new map and ordered a statewide vote in November on whether to keep or reject it.

It's part of a national redistricting battle that Trump launched last year. Missouri’s new congressional boundaries were drawn to help Republicans win an additional seat and hold onto their slim House majority in November's midterm elections.

The Missouri Supreme Court weighed in after redistricting opponents submitted over 300,000 petition signatures seeking to put the map to a vote of the people. Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected the petition on primary Election Day, asserting that Missouri's constitution doesn't allow referendum petitions on congressional redistricting. He successfully defended his decision in a lower court, but on Thursday lost in front of the state's highest court.

The court said the referendum petition effectively suspended the new districts, retroactive to last December, pending voter approval. Although the new districts were used in the August primary, Missouri's top court said the previous districts enacted after the 2020 census must be used in the general election.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said no other court has ordered congressional maps after a primary but before a general election.

“No court in American history has ever given such an extraordinary remedy, which inflicts unprecedented chaos on Missouri,” her office wrote in the appeal. “Looking forwards, the State is genuinely unsure whether it can switch its governing congressional map in time to run a timely federal election.”

She asked the Supreme Court to halt the state court's decision immediately.

State law sets a Tuesday deadline to make changes to the November ballot. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who hears appeals of case from the region, asked critics of the new map to respond to the appeal by Monday.

Backers of the referendum have said a statewide vote would give the state's residents a voice in the process.

Missouri currently has six Republicans and two Democrats in the U.S. House. The new maps reconfigured a Kansas City-based district held by longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.

Congressional districts typically are redrawn at the start of each decade, based on new census data. But Trump’s quest for a midterm election advantage triggered an unusual mid-decade redistricting battle that spread to more than a dozen states led by Democrats and Republicans.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/missouri/missouri-republican-thomas-ross-plant-cocaine-primary-opponent-state-house Associated Press Thomas Ross, 37, was charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Fri, 04 Sep 2026 15:42:00 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/missouri/missouri-republican-thomas-ross-plant-cocaine-primary-opponent-state-house By David A. Lieb

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A candidate for the Missouri House made an initial court appearance Thursday on a federal drug charge accusing him of trying to plant cocaine and Adderall on his Republican primary opponent.

Thomas Ross, 37, is charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. He's accused of asking a campaign manager to plant a small amount of cocaine and a prescription amphetamine pill on his opponent, Louise Secker, in the weeks leading up to the Aug. 4 primary, according to court documents.

Ross, of Joplin, defeated Secker by only a few dozen votes.

Ross did not respond to a Thursday message seeking comment about the charge, which was filed Wednesday. The federal public defender's office assigned to his case didn't immediately reply to a message asking how Ross plans to plead.

Missouri's Republican Party chairman, Peter Kinder, called on Ross to drop out of the race, describing the circumstances of his arrest as “serious and deeply troubling.”

A former campaign manager for Ross told law enforcement officers that Ross provided him with a black nylon glove that contained a small, plastic bag of white powder and a pink and white capsule. He said Ross told him to place it in Secker's purse or vehicle while Ross was out of state on vacation, according to a probable cause statement signed by an FBI agent.

Law enforcement tests later showed the substances to be cocaine and Adderall.

The FBI statement said Ross sent numerous text messages to his campaign staffer regarding “the substance.” In one, Ross said he hoped “that we could make it happen” before Secker attended a Republican women's meeting at a Joplin restaurant in June, “which would be extreme egg on the face,” according to the FBI document.

U.S. Attorney R. Matthew Price said in a statement that voters deserve to have confidence in elections.

“Candidates are expected to conduct their campaigns with integrity, honesty, and respect for their opponents," Price said.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/missouri/missouri-supreme-court-blocks-gop-redistricting-map Manuela Silva The state attorney general said she would appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Thu, 03 Sep 2026 23:15:43 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/missouri/missouri-supreme-court-blocks-gop-redistricting-map The Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the state from continuing to use Republicans’ redrawn congressional map and allowed a November ballot referendum on the issue to move forward.

The ruling to block Republicans’ new map breaks from other redistricting cases this year in red states, where gerrymandering efforts have generally withstood more legal challenges than in Democratic ones.

“What we got today is not an easy accomplishment,” Richard von Glaghn, the executive director of nonprofit People Not Politicians, which sought a ballot referendum on the issue, said at a press conference shortly after the ruling. “It is a unanimous decision from the Supreme Court and it reaffirms what we have said all along. We have the right to do a referendum and a law cannot go into effect until the people decide.”

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway quickly said that she planned to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying that the Thursday decision disenfranchised Missouri voters.

President Donald Trump bemoaned the “horrible, ridiculous and unconstitutional” decision in a Truth Social post soon after the ruling, saying there isn’t “enough time to change the map back.” 

“Missouri must be able to use the map that was in effect just a couple of months ago, in the Primary,” Trump wrote. “This is a Dark Day for ‘Justice’ in Missouri!”

The state’s Republicans were among the first to take up President Donald Trump’s national call to redraw congressional maps to gain more U.S. House seats before the midterms. Lawmakers passed a map that was expected to give Republicans a 7-1 House advantage by drawing out Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s seat in Kansas City, slicing the district he has represented for over 20 years into three parts.

While Missouri’s new map was used in the August primaries, the state must employ the old 6-2 map for the upcoming midterms, the court ruled.

“The referendum petition was legal, sufficient, and timely, and the secretary incorrectly concluded otherwise,” Judge Ginger K. Gooch wrote in the 14-page opinion. “HB 1 did not go into effect and will not go into effect unless and until approved by the voters. The congressional redistricting the General Assembly established in 2022 remains in full force and effect for the November 2026 general election.”

The state constitution allows voters to force a referendum on laws passed by the general assembly. Shortly after lawmakers passed a new map last fall, People Not Politicians promptly filed a petition with over 330,000 signatures, more than double the necessary amount, to Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins. On Aug. 4, Hoskins, a Republican, blocked the referendum effort, a decision a circuit judge later upheld.

Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Brent Powell later that month urged lower court judges to move quickly on the case, citing a state law that restricts changing the ballot after Sept. 8. The high court on Wednesday heard two cases filed by People Not Politicians.

As he left the U.S. Capitol on his way back to Kansas City to await the ruling, Cleaver told NOTUS that the redistricting effort led by Republicans in his state was them putting “political advantage over everything.”

“They wanted to cheat,” Cleaver said on Wednesday. “The polling data shows that the people in Missouri overwhelmingly oppose this — Black, White, brown, Republican, Democrat, independent. Nobody thinks that this is wholesome for the community, but they don't care about that. The issue is, you know, the president wants the seats.”

Republicans have successfully redrawn their maps to make seats more favorable to their party in a slew of states, including multi-seat grabs in Florida and Texas. Democrats have had a much more difficult time, with only the California ballot proposition successfully withstanding legal challenges, while an effort to redistrict in Virginia and a push for potential 2028 redistricting in Maryland were both struck down by their state courts.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has helped coordinate much of Democrats' redistricting efforts this year, applauded the court’s decision, calling it a “resounding victory.”

“The United States Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Virginia Supreme Court in May,” Jeffries wrote in a statement. “We are watching closely to determine if they apply the same standard here, or choose to do the bidding of the Republican Party again.”

This story was updated to include comments from Trump and Jeffries.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/missouri/judge-republicans-missouri-redistricting-referendum-petition-midterms-2026-election Manuela Silva The state’s Republican Party is pushing for their redrawn maps to be used in this year’s midterm elections. Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:48:33 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/missouri/judge-republicans-missouri-redistricting-referendum-petition-midterms-2026-election A Missouri judge handed Republicans a win in Missouri’s ongoing redistricting battle, as the state’s GOP pushes for their redrawn maps to be used in this year’s midterm elections.

In a ruling Wednesday, Cole County Judge Daniel Green upheld Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ decision earlier this month that blocked a referendum seeking to overturn the state’s new congressional maps. The lines had been redrawn to more heavily favor Republicans.

Missouri Republicans were one of the first delegations to take up President Donald Trump’s call last summer to redraw congressional maps in the hopes that Republicans could pad their numbers in this year’s midterm elections and hold control of the House of Representatives.

The party quickly pushed new Trump-backed maps through the state legislature, targeting long-serving Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s seat by splitting up parts of Kansas City.

Over 30,000 Missouri residents signed a petition seeking to force a statewide vote on the gerrymander, according to the organizing group, which handed in the signatures to Hoskins in December. In Missouri, a petition with enough signatures triggers a referendum on the law in question.

On Aug. 4, Hoskins, a Republican, rejected the petition that would have triggered a statewide vote on the new maps, calling the challenge itself unconstitutional.

In the decision issued Wednesday, Green said that because the Missouri Constitution doesn’t explicitly allow or instruct a referendum on redistricting, the referendum is not valid.

“Missouri has never — by constitutional provision, by statute, or by practice — subjected congressional redistricting to the referendum,” Green wrote. “At every turn where the question might have been addressed, Missouri’s framers and legislators either remained silent or affirmatively rejected referenda on redistricting.”

Green also wrote that he believed federal law would prohibit any changes to the maps so close to the general election, in part because the new maps were already used in the state’s primaries.

“An order changing the congressional map would thus create two classes of voters — those who had the opportunity to select their general election candidate and those who did not — in direct violation of the Equal Protection Clause,” Green wrote, stating that the court would not be making any changes to the new maps.

People Not Politicians, the group leading the lawsuit against the maps, vowed to fight the ruling in the state’s Supreme Court.

"The most important thing that happened today is that there was a ruling,” Richard von Glahn, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “The State has tried to slow down the judicial process for months and now that we are out of Cole County, the real decision will be made. Our case now moves forward.”

Ballots for Missouri’s general election must be finalized by Sept. 8. Chief Justice Brent Powell ordered an expedited review of the case, with oral arguments set for Sept. 2.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/drone-plot-foiled-against-white-house-ufc-fight-fbi-secret-service Derek Hawkins Authorities have five men in custody but suspects remain at-large in a failed mass violence plot. Tue, 16 Jun 2026 20:53:44 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/drone-plot-foiled-against-white-house-ufc-fight-fbi-secret-service Federal authorities said Tuesday they disrupted an alleged plot to use drones, explosives and snipers to kill politicians and other attendees at the UFC fight held over the weekend on the White House lawn, thwarting a group of would-be attackers several days before the event.

Officials said five people were in custody as of Tuesday morning and that authorities were still investigating a network of possible coconspirators spanning multiple states who allegedly discussed plans over a group chat to carry out mass violence at the event.

Though court documents indicate that the alleged plot was still in planning stages when the arrests were made, officials said the threat was serious and that the search for at-large suspects was ongoing.

“We’re going to work it until everyone’s been identified,” Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn told reporters. “We’re going to take every threat on its face. If you say you’re going to do it, we’re going to believe it until we can prove otherwise.”

The disclosure of the investigation into the alleged plot, which was first reported by Fox News and promoted on social media by FBI Director Kash Patel, appeared to create tension between the Secret Service and FBI.

When Quinn was asked about the operation Tuesday morning at the scene of an unrelated shooting in Washington, he told reporters that the service had “led that investigation from the beginning” and that “some of what you read this morning is accurate.”

“In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it,” he said.

Patel said in a post on X that “thanks to the rapid action of this FBI, our partners, and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation, multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold.”

A statement by Secret Service Director Sean Curran was more muted, saying that the protective agency’s “comments regarding the specifics of this case will be made through court filings.”

The FBI and Secret Service later said in a joint statement emailed to NOTUS that they have a “strong working relationship.”

The cage match on the South Lawn of the White House, dubbed UFC Freedom 250, drew tens of thousands of spectators the night of June 14 and involved months of security planning from the Secret Service, D.C. police, FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

Law enforcement officials said the event – held in advance of the nation’s 250th anniversary as well as on President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday– received one of the federal government’s highest security designations and required extraordinary vigilance due to the popularity of mixed martial arts and the size and scope of the gathering, which featured a 4,000-person arena constructed on the White House grounds.

Officials were particularly concerned about potential drone incursions and “lone wolf” attacks on the event, though they did not publicly disclose any credible threats in the days leading up to the fight.

Those arrested in the alleged plot to attack the event included Tycen Proper, a 19-year-old man from Knox County, Ohio. He was charged in federal court with conspiracy, attempted murder of an officer or employee of the United States, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and receipt of a firearm used to commit a felony.

A public defender assigned to Proper did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Proper has not entered a plea. Court records show a detention hearing is set for Wednesday afternoon, followed by a preliminary hearing on June 29.

Authorities arrested Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez in Nebraska on charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States in connection with the alleged plot.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, said the suspect was one of the “key ringleaders” of the alleged plot and called his arrest a “timely example that violent extremists can be lurking anywhere.”

A public defender for Alvarez declined to comment.

Authorities also charged 24-year-old Bryan Roa and 32-year-old Michael Alan Thomas, both of California, and 32-year-old Daniel Eskridge, of Missouri. It was not immediately clear if the suspects had entered pleas.

According to the charges against Proper, investigators learned about the alleged plot on June 10 when his mother called local police to their home.

Proper’s parents told officers that he had spent about $3,000 of his graduation money on weapons, ammunition and other equipment, and had talked with people online about possible “missions” and “recons,” the complaint states.

During the visit, family members turned over thousands of rounds of ammunition, ammunition magazines and two rifles to officers, according to the complaint. That night, court papers say, sheriff’s deputies took Proper to a local hospital where was admitted for “homicidal ideations.”

Proper’s mother told investigators that her son had joined an online group with people who claimed to be former military and “Christian-based,” according to the complaint. She said members “expressed ultra-religious and anti-government” sentiments, including grievances about corruption, the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and “data centers taking up all the water in communities.”

When she asked her son about the group’s communications, he allegedly mentioned scouting locations for “hit-and-run missions,” which she took to mean shootings, according to the complaint. Family members also told investigators Proper had made sympathetic comments about Adolf Hitler and posted anti-Semitic comments on Facebook, the complaint says.

Proper admitted to planning an attack on the UFC event during a June 11 interview with investigators at the medical facility where he was housed, according to the complaint. He said the alleged conversations began in March 2026 in a TikTok group called “Vanguard of the Old,” whose members, he said, believed the United States “needed to be torn down so that it could be rebuilt,” the complaint says. Some members later moved their conversations to the encrypted Signal app.

Proper allegedly told investigators that the group planned to rendezvous in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the weekend of the fight, then drive to Washington and stage a demonstration near the White House. The idea was to fly drones equipped with “unspecified explosive devices” to detonate over the fight arena and force a sudden evacuation, the complaint says.

“PROPER stated that the plan was for members of his group to act as snipers and additional shooters, preferably with long guns, staged at or near the southern evacuation point to conduct shootings of the members of the crowd,” the complaint says.

Their “high-value” targets allegedly included wealthy guests and members of Congress, among them Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee); Proper allegedly said he wanted to attack her because of her support for Israel.

In a statement on social media, Blackburn thanked the FBI for stopping the alleged plot, saying that it was “incredibly chilling that this suspect named me as a potential target along with other lawmakers.”

Investigators said a search of Proper’s phone confirmed much of what he described in the interview. The Signal group consisted of about 19 people, with smaller groups of four or five people broken up based on assignments or locations, according to the complaint.

The chat included detailed images and maps of downtown Washington, with potential sniper and drone locations highlighted. Conversations also allegedly took place on the encrypted messaging application SimpleX, investigators said.

Proper told investigators that he originally learned of an anti-government protest in Washington from a TikTok user named Shepherd, according to a criminal complaint in Alvarez’s case.

In one Signal chat titled “Hunters,” investigators said Shepherd appeared to be directing other members on where snipers and drone operators should position themselves during the attack, the complaint said.

Investigators said the user flagged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who did not attend the event, as a potential target, along with Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Elon Musk. The user also allegedly discussed purchasing drones and rigging explosives.

On June 13, FBI domestic terrorism agents traced the TikTok account to an address associated with Alvarez in Omaha, Nebraska, according to the complaint.

Proper told investigators that the attack was designed to “jumpstart” a revolution in the United States.

This story has been updated to include a comment from the FBI and Secret Service.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/missouri/missouri-governor-mike-kehoe-activates-national-guard-to-assist-ice Amelia Benavides-Colón The state’s troops will assist with data entry, case management and logistical support. Tue, 30 Sep 2025 23:58:10 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/missouri/missouri-governor-mike-kehoe-activates-national-guard-to-assist-ice Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe activated his state’s National Guard on Tuesday, authorizing the troops to perform tasks on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“The Missouri National Guard is uniquely equipped to provide this essential administrative support, and we are confident their contributions will be invaluable to immigration enforcement efforts,” Kehoe said in a press release. “Missouri is proud to join in the Trump administration's efforts to keep our state and nation secure.”

Effective Wednesday, Missouri National Guard troops will support ICE with data entry, case management and logistical support, which will enable “ICE personnel to focus on core enforcement and security functions.”

The authorization comes after a request for assistance from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and will last until Sept. 30, 2026, according to the release. Kehoe said Tuesday that 15 members have so far volunteered for the mission.

Local Democratic leaders quickly criticized the move. President of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, Megan Green, said the decision “isn’t just un-American, it’s inhumane, and it won’t make Missouri safer.”

“Don’t be fooled. This move isn’t about keeping people safe or making the lives of Missouri residents better — it’s about maintaining control,” Green continued.

Republicans in the state government, on the other hand, voiced support for the measure.

“I think what the governor is doing is a good thing,” state Rep. Bill Hardwick said, as reported by Missouri’s local NPR station. “I think it's a good opportunity for soldiers to get experience and to do a good job.”

The move follows similar authorizations from more than 20 other Republican-led states that have heededHegseth’s request for assistance.

On Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry asked President Donald Trump to send the state 1,000 National Guard troops to assist with crime fighting efforts in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and elsewhere.

“Federal partnerships in our toughest cities have worked, and now, with the support of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, we are taking the next step by bringing in the National Guard,” Landry said Tuesday in a press release. “This mission is about saving lives and protecting families.”

“To the criminals terrorizing our communities: your time is up,” Landry continued. “Law and order are back in Louisiana.”]]> https://washingtonsun.com/congress/republicans-medicaid-work-requirements-states Emily Kennard Medicaid work requirements would put more of an administrative burden on states, including several that could be dramatically unprepared to keep up with the additional work and cost. Mon, 03 Mar 2025 18:09:53 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/congress/republicans-medicaid-work-requirements-states In their scramble to figure out how to reduce spending, Republicans are touting the idea of tying work requirements to Medicaid — a move that would impact 36 million Americans and, as some lawmakers acknowledged, could ultimately increase Medicaid program costs in their states.

The House’s budget resolution tasked the committee that oversees Medicaid and Medicare with cutting $880 billion, meaning Republicans will almost certainly have to find ways to curtail federal spending on those programs.

One of their most politically palatable options would be to require approximately 36 million able-bodied Medicaid adults to prove they work or file paperwork for exemptions. Speaker Mike Johnson recently argued that work requirements, along with other cuts, could get them to that figure without reducing people’s benefits, though the Congressional Budget Office projected in 2023 that Medicaid work requirements would only save approximately $109 billion over ten years.

“Work requirements, I’m 100% on board with. I don't think you'll get any argument from Republicans on that,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, who’s said multiple times he’d oppose cuts to Medicaid benefits. When asked if he worried about work-reporting programs increasing administrative costs for states’ social services agencies, he said he thought they “might help the state’s budget if it reduces folks on Medicaid who shouldn’t be.”

Hawley represents Missouri, a state considering legislation to mandate work requirements for Medicaid recipients. Critics of the legislation point out that the state’s social services agency already struggles to meet federal standards for processing paperwork and added red tape would slow that down even more — all while piling on more administrative costs.

When asked about the cost of states implementing work requirements, some Republican lawmakers pointed to the fact that states already administer work-reporting requirements for other social services, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

But neither of those programs comes close to the size of Medicaid. Plus, of the people targeted by most work requirement proposals — that is, able-bodied adults who aren’t covered by Medicare or receiving Social Security income — 92% already work or would be exempt for other reasons, according to KFF, a health policy research organization.

The state of Kentucky reported to the Government Accountability Office in 2019 that implementing work requirements for Medicaid recipients would cost $271.6 million. The state’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services did not respond to NOTUS with an updated estimate, but the chair of the committee tasked with cutting $880 billion (the House Committee on Energy and Commerce) argued that work requirements would not actually cost his state that much.

“I have legislative friends in the legislature who know the budget, and they’ve never said that number,” Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, the committee chair, told NOTUS. “The American people think people should — if they’re going to get something free, and they have the ability to work, and not the issues that some people have in their lives, having to deal with elderly parents and so forth — then they should work.”

Guthrie said his committee will likely propose work requirements in some form but would consider administrative costs and work with state legislatures to figure out specific requirements: “It doesn’t have to be monthly. That’s what we need to see. Is it going to be too costly to be monthly? It could be quarterly. I mean, that’s where you have to figure out what the right way to do it is.”

Many lawmakers insisted work requirements would still reduce what they see as wasteful spending on beneficiaries that shouldn’t be getting taxpayer money.

“If you're an able-bodied male, 26 years old, and you’re playing video games and not working, you should go to work. And there’s quite a few of those on Medicaid,” Rep. Andy Ogles told NOTUS. When asked if he had any specific examples of beneficiaries abusing health care benefits in mind, he said, “That’s a stupid question.”

And Rep. Dusty Johnson, who has proposed multiple bills to strengthen SNAP work requirements, said concerns about working people losing coverage because they fail to keep up with new administrative burdens — a much-documented effect of work requirement policies — is “fear-mongering.”

“There are already tens of millions of Americans who are subject to work requirements. This is not a new concept,” Johnson told NOTUS. “[Work requirements] are fantastically effective in helping people. … The evidence suggests that overwhelmingly, the impact, on average, is positive.”

He cited two states, Maine and Arkansas, as examples of work requirement policies that raised SNAP beneficiaries’ incomes. But Maine discontinued its efforts to mandate work for Medicaid beneficiaries in 2019 because they would “only impose burdensome mandates on people without increasing workforce participation.”

And with Medicaid work requirements, the data from Arkansas, the only state to ever enact a work-reporting requirement that disenrolled noncompliant beneficiaries, tells a much different story than the case Johnson made.

After it started requiring beneficiaries to report their hours in 2018, approximately 18,000 people lost their health care even though around 97% of them had exemptions or otherwise met the requirements. Studies found that beneficiaries were confused by the policy, and some lacked internet access to report their work hours.

While it did not increase beneficiaries’ workforce participation, it did increase medical debt, and delay care for more than half of those disenrolled: 64% of people affected delayed taking medication because they couldn’t afford it. The CBO concluded in 2023 that “the employment status of and hours worked by Medicaid recipients would be unchanged” by work requirements, but it would lead to more uninsured Americans. The CBO came to that conclusion in part thanks to data from Arkansas.

When asked about that report, Johnson suggested the CBO should not “draw conclusions on the basis of one state’s experience.”

It’s distant history for some lawmakers. Arkansas Sen. John Boozman told NOTUS he couldn’t even recall his state’s work requirement: “A lot’s happened since 2018.”

Some GOP-led states are already pursuing waivers from the Trump administration to implement their own work requirements. And some have already started their own experiments, with little success: Georgia, which never opted into the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, launched Pathways to Coverage in July 2023, which allowed people under the federal poverty line to get coverage if they proved they worked or volunteered at least 80 hours a month or were enrolled in school.

As reported by ProPublica, the Pathways to Coverage program has cost federal and state taxpayers more than $86.9 million, and three-quarters of that went to consulting fees. That large price tag comes in spite of the program only having 6,500 participants and a backlog of 16,000 unprocessed applications.

“The program has been a failure from top to bottom. It's been poorly administered, poorly designed, wastefully run,” Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff told NOTUS. “The Pathways program hasn't worked in Georgia, and we should be looking for opportunities to expand health coverage, not to slash it.”

But the potential cost is beside the point for some proponents. A couple of House Republicans told NOTUS they were less interested in the money states would spend implementing work requirements, and more interested in the principle of requiring beneficiaries to prove they work.

“If that’s what it takes to make sure that the right people are getting the benefits, then I’m all for it,” Rep. John Rutherford said, adding it’d be “the cost of doing business.”

Rep. Darrell Issa agreed: “America’s not better, regardless of the cost, if people who should be working aren’t working,” he said.

—
Emily Kennard is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.]]>