As part of the Brookings Scholar Lecture Series, Brookings Mountain West presented a lecture titled "The Safety Net Should Work for Working Age Adults" by Brookings fellow in economic studies, Lauren Bauer.

This lecture focuses attention on a population that is ill-served by the safety net but rarely acknowledged: low-income, working-age adults without dependents or government-determined disabilities. In this lecture, Brookings scholar Lauren Bauer, a former special assistant in the Office of the Secretary at the US Department of Education, argues that a safety net that is inaccessible to ABAWDs (able-bodied adults without dependents) fails to recognize the precarious state of the low-wage labor market or how safety-net programs allow these workers to remain in the workforce. By modernizing the parameters of who qualifies for access to safety-net programs, assistance can be made available for low-income, working age Americans who have a vital, but often invisible role in the economy.