Work requirements — better understood as benefit limits for the unemployed — are the centerpiece of Medicaid and food benefit cuts Republicans are using to offset part of the cost of tax cuts at the heart of their so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Work requirements were the core of a 1996 welfare reform bill that Clinton signed into law.

In Oklahoma, nearly one in four Oklahomans are on Medicaid. Officials are worried the budget bill in the U.S. Senate will have major reprecussions.