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President Trump quietly signed a long-anticipated executive order on Tuesday intended to force low-income recipients of food assistance, Medicaid and low-income housing subsidies to join the work force or face the loss of their benefits. The order, in the works since last year, has an ambitious title — “Reducing Poverty in America” — and is directed at “any program that provides means-tested assistance or other assistance that provides benefits to people, households or families that have low incomes,” according to the order’s text. (Thrush, 4/10)

"Part of President Trump's effort to create a booming American economy includes moving Americans from welfare to work and supporting and encouraging others to support common-sense reforms that restore American prosperity and help them reclaim their independence," he said. The order focuses on looking for ways to strengthen existing work requirements and exploring new requirements for benefits such as food stamps, cash and housing assistance programs. (Colvin, 4/10)

The executive order is the strongest statement Trump has made about the country’s social safety net program since his February budget proposal to slash billions of dollars in food stamps, health insurance and federal housing subsidies. Trump indicated at the time that he would push legislation to institute broad work requirements for families receiving housing vouchers, expanding on moves by some states to require recipients of Medicaid and food stamps to work. (Jan, 4/10)

Democratic and liberal critics of the policies have countered that many programs help low-income families that are already working, and additional requirements would increase bureaucracy for them and for local and state governments. “The evidence shows that such requirements have few long-term positive effects on employment and often result in families losing help they need to afford the basics,” said Sharon Parrott, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (Radnofsky, 4/10)

Under Trump, HHS has already sought to enshrine work requirements in Medicaid, a first in the history of the health coverage program for the poor. Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas got the green light this year to require certain able-bodied adults to work as a condition of keeping their health benefits. Advocates for the poor contend that employment rules for Medicaid are not legal and have already sued to stop the Kentucky requirements from taking effect. Conservatives used the executive order to push federal health officials to approve pending Medicaid work requirement requests in several other Republican-led states, including Utah, Maine, Wisconsin, Arizona and Alabama. (Woellert, 4/10)

There are bills in the Minnesota House and Senate that would require people receiving Medical Assistance to work or volunteer. The bills specify that those who are "able-bodied" should be able to work or volunteer while receiving Medical Assistance, Minnesota's version of Medicaid. (Miller and Shockman, 4/10)

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday signed new limits on welfare programs into law, committing state and federal taxpayers to nearly $80 million in spending to draw more people into the labor force. (Stein, 4/10)

Medicaid patients living with HIV in South Florida might need to find new health insurance. The Agency for Health Care Administration will decide whether to drop its contract with AIDS Health Care Foundation by the end of this month. (Prieur, 4/10)