Representative Paul Ryan, outgoing chairman of the House Budget Committee, introduced a sweeping reform of federal anti-poverty programs this morning, focusing on devolving functions to the states and encouraging opportunity, mobility, and self-sufficiency. He’s speaking at AEI this morning to discuss the plan, which can be read here. It does run to 73 footnoted pages, so we’ve got a summary over at the Agenda, by NR intern Callie Gable. The main points:

‐ Offer states the option of a big block grant to replace existing federal welfare programs

‐ Expand the Earned-Income Tax Credit and make it work better

‐ Fix federal education funding and make it more flexible

‐ Acknowledge that mass incarceration is a huge impediment to mobility, and start addressing it

‐ Get rid of regressive regulation

‐ Emphasize evidence-based policy-making