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What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk shares our most recent publications and other resources to help you stay informed about Oklahoma. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In The Know. Click here to subscribe to In The Know.
This Week from OK Policy
“Work requirements” won’t work for Oklahoma: Few policy ideas have proven as persistent — or misleading — as the notion that forcing people to work will lift them out of poverty. The Big Beautiful Bill, or House Resolution 1 (H.R. 1), revives that same flawed logic: the so-called “work requirements” in it are another misguided attempt to legislate personal responsibility. Framed as a way to encourage work and independence, these policies are not about responsibility at all — they’re about paperwork. Instead of helping families find stability, they create systems that judge worthiness through forms and reporting, not effort or need. [Kati Malicoate / OK Policy]
Fact Check: Is Walmart’s Thanksgiving meal really cheaper this year?: There’s a viral claim — being echoed by national and state politicians — that Walmart’s 2025 Thanksgiving meal is “cheaper than last year.” But there is only a savings because Walmart changed what’s in the meal — not because the cost of the same items went down. Here’s what actually happened. [Kati Malicoate / OK Policy]
Will rising health costs force legislative action? (Capitol Update): With the legislative session set to begin in February, I’m wondering how or how much the upcoming health insurance crisis will affect the next legislative session. According to the American Hospital Association, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) passed by Congress will lead to a reduction of $2.4 billion in federal Medicaid spending on rural hospitals in Oklahoma over 10 years. [Steve Lewis / Capitol Update]
OK Policy in the News
Is a minimum wage increase good for Oklahoma? Here’s what local experts say: Aanahita Ervin, fiscal policy analyst for the Oklahoma Policy Institute, said raising the minimum wage is about helping Oklahoma’s most vulnerable workers afford basic necessities, improving economic productivity and ensuring “corporations pay their workers a decent wage so companies are not subsidized by the rest of the economy. [The Oklahoman]
Oklahoma Chronicles: What issues are going to drive gubernatorial race? (video): On the latest edition of Oklahoma Chronicle with Evan Onstot, OK Policy’s Cole Allen joins a panel discussion about the initiative petition restrictions, as well as issues that will impact Oklahomans in the coming statewide elections. [KOCO]
- From OK Policy: The Future of Democracy Rests in the Oklahoma Supreme Court (SB 1027) and an interactive map on how SB 1027 would impact your county
Weekly What’s That
Public charge is a term used by U.S. immigration officials to refer to a person who is considered primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, as demonstrated by either receipt of public cash assistance for income maintenance or institutionalization for long-term care at government expense. Where this consideration applies, an immigrant who is found to be “likely . . . to become a public charge” may be denied admission to the U.S. or lawful permanent resident status.
For decades, “public charge” was defined as being primarily dependent on government for monthly cash assistance or long-term institutional care. A rule issued by the Trump Administration in 2019 significantly broadened the public charge definition. Under the rule, individuals determined likely to receive even modest assistance at any point over their lifetimes from a far broader set of benefits, including SNAP, Medicaid, public housing, and rent assistance, would be considered a public charge. Immigration officials would look at many factors to determine the likelihood of benefit receipt, including whether the immigrant’s current family income is above 125 percent of the federal poverty level. The rule took effect February 24, 2020 while under challenge from several lawsuits.
In March 2021, the new Biden administration published a rule that essentially revoked the Trump Administration’s public charge rule. In September 2022, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a final rule addressing the public charge inadmissibility ground that become effective on December 23, 2022. The Biden Administration’s 2022 rule was largely similar to the field guidance in effect prior to the Trump Administration that narrowly defines public charge based on dependence on monthly cash assistance or long-term institutional care.
In November 2025, the Department of Homeland Security issued a new proposed rule that would again expand the public charge test. The proposal would allow immigration officers to consider additional factors — including several non-cash benefits that are currently excluded — when assessing whether someone is likely to rely on government support. Although the proposal does not automatically add specific benefit programs to the public charge list, it would give officers broader discretion to treat use of basic supports like Medicaid or SNAP as negative “predictors” in the totality-of-circumstances assessment. The rule also outlines new “heavily weighted negative factors,” potentially making it harder for low-income immigrants and mixed-status families to secure lawful permanent residence. This rule has not yet taken effect; it remains a proposal and will go through a public comment period before any final action.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“Every day, I have lived through the massacre. While our country may forget this history, I cannot.”— Mother Viola Fletcher, one of the last two known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, writing in her memoir, “Don’t Let Them Bury My Story.” She was among the plaintiffs seeking redress for the destruction of historic Greenwood, also known as Black Wall Street. Fletcher died Monday, November 24 at age 111. [The Oklahoma Eagle]
- From Human Rights Watch: Failed Justice 100 Years After Tulsa Race Massacre
Editorial of the Week
Opinion: Shutdown shook stability SNAP provides. Effects will linger
When the recent federal government shutdown stretched longer than any in our nation’s history, many Oklahomans saw headlines. The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma’s partner network saw people.
We saw households who had never visited us before, with a significant surge in first time visitors across our partner network. We saw seniors who rely on predictable monthly SNAP benefits suddenly unsure how they would afford groceries. And we saw our partner food pantries, already strained long before this shutdown, pushed to capacity. Throughout the shutdown, the Regional Food Bank’s partner network saw a 37% increase in neighbors seeking food resources.
In a state that values personal responsibility and strong families, we should also invest in and bolster the tools that help our neighbors stay on their feet. SNAP is one of those tools. [Read More]
Numbers of the Week
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6 million – The number of adults in the Medicaid expansion group the Congressional Budget Office estimates will lose coverage under new work reporting requirements and more frequent renewals. The CBO also projects that as many as 1.5 million children could lose coverage due to administrative errors or confusion, even though parents of children under 14 are supposed to be exempt. [Congressional Budget Office]
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56% – The share of local tax revenue in Oklahoma that comes from property taxes. These dollars fund critical services Oklahomans rely on every day, including fire response, law enforcement, emergency services, trash collection, libraries, and schools. [Tax Foundation]
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-9 – The gap between the national average 8th-grade reading score (258) and Oklahoma’s average (249). This persistent deficit shows that Oklahoma students are entering high school with weaker reading skills than their peers nationwide, making recovery efforts and sustained investment in literacy even more critical. [National Assessment of Educational Progress]
What We’re Reading
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Are States Ready to Implement HR 1 and Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements?: States are being required by law under HR 1 to introduce work reporting, more frequent renewals, cost-sharing, and stricter eligibility rules for adult Medicaid expansion populations, adding heavy administrative burdens just months after pandemic-era continuous coverage protections ended. Many state systems show red flags — such as slow application processing, long wait times on help lines, low rates of automatic renewals, and high renewal disenrollments — suggesting that widespread coverage losses are likely unless states dramatically improve eligibility operations. Children are likely to lose coverage indirectly through family coverage breakdowns, even if not directly targeted, and marketplace disruptions coupled with diminished subsidies add further risk to access. Without careful planning, technology upgrades, clearer guidance, and stronger outreach, the implementation risks exacerbating inequities and denying eligible people health coverage. [Georgetown Center for Children and Families]
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Confronting the New Property Tax Revolt: Property taxes are a foundational revenue source for local governments — more efficient, more aligned with benefits, and less distortionary than many alternatives. Rather than undoing this system, reforms should focus on well-designed tools that preserve revenue stability while easing burdens, such as narrow circuit breakers that target low-income households and levy or revenue limits that curb excessive growth without distorting markets. Broad exemptions, assessment freezes, or radical tax swaps may generate unintended consequences by shifting tax burdens or undermining local service capacity. [Tax Foundation]
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New Math and Reading Data Illustrate the State of Postpandemic High School Achievement and Attendance: Recent data from the 2024 NAEP reveal that high school seniors continue to lag behind their pre-pandemic peers in both math and reading, signaling incomplete recovery from learning disruptions. Meanwhile, chronic absenteeism has surged, undermining gains in academic engagement and threatening long-term student outcomes. Because achievement and attendance in high school are tightly linked to college readiness and labor market success, states must prioritize interventions that reengage students, rebuild foundational skills, and monitor late-stage academic recovery. [Urban Institute]
