The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report entitled “Medicaid: Improving Responsiveness of Federal Assistance to States during Economic Downturns,” as mandated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The report reviews the impact of previous recessions on states’ ability to fund Medicaid, the responsiveness of past Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) increases, and options for adjusting the increased FMAP formula for use during future recessions. Among other things, the GAO discusses potential future FMAP adjustments including: (1) using an automatic trigger to start the assistance program closer to the onset of a national recession, (2) adding several quarters of transitional assistance before ending the increased FMAP assistance, and (3) targeting assistance by calculating the increased funding needed on the basis of the economic conditions of each state. Such policies would require statutory change.