Three-Year Guaranteed Income Pilot Program for 20,000 Americans Could Combat Jobs Losses From Automation and AI

A US lawmaker is proposing a pilot program that would see thousands of Americans receiving a guaranteed income amid the rapid acceleration of automation.

New Jersey Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman has introduced the Guaranteed Income Pilot Program Act of 2025 to test the impact of a federally funded income support program on American families over a three-year period.

The guaranteed income initiative seeks to disburse monthly cash payments to selected individuals. The amount is equal to either the fair market rent for a two-bedroom home in a person’s zip code or a figure determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Payments are scheduled to be delivered on or before the 15th of each month.

The program is looking to include 20,000 Americans, including 10,000 for the control group. The bill also requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service and a designated research institution to study the outcomes of the pilot and provide a report within two years of implementation.

Representative Coleman says the pilot seeks to study how the government can keep Americans from experiencing permanent financial fallout after a crisis at a time when artificial intelligence and robotics are threatening to reduce the need for human labor.

“Tens of millions of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Almost three in five do not have the savings to weather an emergency expense of $1,000.

Events like the Coronavirus Pandemic, economic fluctuations, and increasing automation and job losses threaten to wipe out what little savings they have, to finally push them to homelessness, to reinforce the fact that in the wealthiest nation in the world, too many families are just a single mishap away from financial devastation.”

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