About 40 years ago, Maximus, Inc. helped birth a new industry by finding profit in the minutiae of government aid to the poor: the monetized safety net. In 2018, Type Investigations and Mother Jones amassed the company’s safety net contracts for the prior decade with 44 state and local governments. These contracts cost taxpayers nearly $2.5 billion—and generated controversy for what critics have called unreasonable cost and poor performance.
Our findings are published in the January/February 2019 issue of Mother Jones: How One Company Is Making Millions Off Trump’s War on the Poor.
We want to help you continue this reporting in your community, and have created an extensive tipsheet to help. Maximus’ work is concentrated heavily in a few states, with major obligations in Texas and Michigan—and significant recent contracts in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, legislatures in South Carolina and Michigan have passed work requirements for Medicaid, boosting demand for Maximus’ services.
The table below is the most comprehensive database of the company’s contracts for public benefits to date, covering work in 180 contracts—and 392 amendments and renewals. It also includes links to all related contract documents obtained through public information requests. It can be skimmed through below, or you can download a more detailed table—including reporting notes, dates signed and other fine print— here.
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How One Company Is Making Millions Off Trump’s War on the Poor
Read Tracie McMillan’s full investigation, published in partnership with Mother Jones.