ALC-Hospital, Medicaid, & Developmental Disabilities Study Subcommittee
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Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
6:41
get this committee started.
all right good morning everyone we'll go ahead and get this committee meeting started
i appreciate everybody coming i know it's a very busy time of year and lots going on but this is really a very important topic so I really appreciate everybody taking some time out this morning a very important
subject that we've got going on so Senator English would you like to say anything before we get started all right if we could have the folks here from Department of DHS come on up Janet and Misty and Mary Franklin if you guys want to come up and get started on our presentation I think TANF is something we really need to understand something that's much more state-directed than other programs that we partner with the federal government on so we thought it was really important with our discussion to make sure we understand what what is TANF what
in the world is that money used for and currently where is it being used in our state and if you guys will get your questions ready I think there'll be a lot of things you want to ask some
questions on so ladies if you'll announce who you are real quick for us and get started we appreciate you so much for being here first
Speaker 51
8:20
thing on a Monday morning to get us going thank you thank you good morning
Speaker 53
8:27
janet mann a dhs secretary misty banks dhs deputy secretary mary
Speaker 55
8:32
franklin director of the division of county operations for dhs thank you all members there's a
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
8:39
the presentation is up there is in your uh book that um kate has done a phenomenal job as long again thanks kate for doing such an outstanding job for all of us there's a lot of work going on this committee and I cannot I don't know what we do without her so all right ladies we'll let
Speaker 58
8:55
you take it off thank you Mary is going to
Speaker 54
9:00
give us all the details all right uh the first part of the presentation is
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
9:04
about Mary can you pull your microphone just a bit closer is that better much
Speaker 62
9:09
better thank you the first part of the presentation is about TANF which is temporary assistance for needy families and it is a block grant that the state of Arkansas receives. This first slide is just to familiarize everyone or remind everyone of the four main purposes of TANF which are to provide assistance to needy families to ensure that children are cared for in their own homes or in the homes of relatives by providing financial assistance to families in need.
Another purpose of TANF is to promote job preparation, work, and marriage, to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies and births, and to encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. In addition to those four main purposes of TANF, TANF can also be used to fund services that were authorized under prior law, before the TANF law, and if these services were approved in the 1995 or 96 Aid to Families with Dependent Children's State Plan.
We were asked to provide a summary of how the TANF funds are used as far as the grants go. And one of the Department of Education, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, receives part of the TANF block grant. They receive $7.5 million annually for the Arkansas Better Chance program. And the purpose of Arkansas Better Chance is to offer high-quality early education services to children from birth to age 5,
exhibiting developmental and socioeconomic risk factors. In addition, it provides educational opportunities to help children become school-ready. And this grant is also part of our TANF maintenance of effort, and it is authorized and required in state law that the $7.5 million annually goes to Department of Ed from the TANF block grant. We also provide TANF funding to the Arkansas Division of Higher Education, the Career Pathways Initiative.
This funding is also mandated in Arkansas state statute. There's not a specific dollar amount listed, and that dollar amount is negotiated annually. But the Career Pathways Initiative, or CPI, promotes job preparation, work, and marriage for participants who have custody or legal responsibility for a child under age 21. And with an income of less than 250% of the federal poverty level. So the CPI program supports participants by increasing access to education,
improving preparedness for high skills or high-wage jobs by collaborating with employers to identify the workforce demands. And, of course, the goal of CPI is to continue playing a critical role to help families with low income to improve their circumstances. All right, those two we wanted to specifically call out because statute does govern the funding and for those two agencies.
Then in addition to that, we also have some existing TANF subgrants, and one is to the Arkansas Baptist Children and Families Ministries. It supports TANF purposes one through three. They provide residential assistance to protect children and empower mothers in Jonesboro, Little Rock, and Springdale who are at risk for homelessness. These mothers are taught stability while they're pursuing education and viable employment.
The children are provided after-school transportation, tutoring, and summer enrichment programming, and weekly counseling with licensed counselors. And their goal is to remain steadfast in their commitment to equip mothers with the essential resources to transition from the inconsistency to empowerment. We also have a current sub-grant with the Arkansas Alliance for Boys and Girls Club that helps to meet TANF Purpose 1.
And the Boys and Girls Club Alliance offers a variety of programs to support youth in achieving positive outcomes in their three priority areas, which are academic success, good character, and citizenship, and healthy lifestyles. Counties they serve are Ashley, Benton, Columbia, Crawford, Crantenden, DeShay, Garland, Hot Spring, Jefferson, Logan, Miller, Phillips, Pope, Pulaski, Celine, Sebastian, and Union.
We have a sub-grant with the Arkansas Human Development Corporation. The AHDC is dedicated to offering crucial services in youth development to individuals ranging from age 14 to 21. The initiative targets those encountering barriers in the impoverished Delta region of Arkansas by forging partnerships with 14 municipalities, local communities, and faith-based entities.
The AHDC aims to actively involve and empower the youth with the specific demographics. AHDC strives to acquaint participants with employment opportunities, entrepreneurial skills, financial literacy, and the prospect of gaining knowledge through structured programs while concurrently earning income. If we can take a break, just right there, we do have one question right here.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
15:04
And also, I think that you guys in the past have sent us a list, and it should be your packet.
I'm going to find out what we're spending on each one of these subgrants. Do you have that with you today? So when you give this to present, just at the beginning of each one, how much we're spending on each one of
Speaker 68
15:33
those subgrants. If you can go over the first three real quick, and then
Speaker 62
15:38
I'm going to recognize Representative Beatty after that. Okay, so the Human Development Corps, they were awarded $752,828.30 for July through December of 25.
The Arkansas Baptist Children and Families Ministry was $89,044.18, also for July through December of 25. The Boys and Girls Club, $453,386.90. That's good. You've got the ones we've done so far. At the beginning of each one, if
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
16:12
you don't mind sharing the amount, that would
be helpful. I appreciate that. All right, Representative Beatty, we'll recognize you.
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
16:23
Thank you, Madam Chair. I was hoping that we would get a little bit of information and changes on the TANF and correct me if I'm wrong is that that some of our community-based organizations had been notified that their funding at after the end of 25 they would no longer receive funding and then with the government shutdown I think there was there was a hold on the half that they were promised so I guess my question is is for those community-based organizations that did receive six months of TANF funding or grant.
Is there any plan to extend that timeline beyond December 31st of 25 for them to expend those funds now that the government's reopened? Yes, sir.
Speaker 58
17:10
Thank you for the question. So I think multiple pieces to your question. So we did notify the seven subgrantees in May that we were giving six-month subgrants and that anything after December 31st was unknown at the time. That happened in May. During the government shutdown, we waited 30 days.
We operated in good faith. We did ask all of our subgrants, including CPI and ABC, to halt duties. I believe it was approximately 10 to 14 days. We have given them notice to resume their activities as soon as the government voted to reopen to honor to honor those subgrants i also do need to note that we do not have the tanf award yet for federal fiscal year 26 i believe last week we reported in committee that we were still waiting
on four grants to have notice of awards from the federal government we did receive the older american act subgrants or grant awards last week also we received the social services block grant on friday so we have gotten two of the four that we're waiting on so we're currently still waiting on tanf we're still waiting on um community services block grant csbg but we have we have notified them that they can resume services through 1231 now we are looking at to answer
your final question we are now looking at what to do in january with what with the amount of resources that we have. We've not made any decisions on new grants. We are considering the grant award with an extension for time only if they haven't spent all of what was sub-granted to allow them to spend it January through June. And we've got to make that decision obviously this week so that we can notify them but also bring the paperwork before y'all.
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
19:11
And when would you bring that paperwork before
Speaker 81
19:14
us? I just got corrected that it doesn't come before y'all, so I apologize. Sorry. Yeah,
Speaker 83
19:19
to extend for time only is an administrative change. So we're able to extend because you've already given them the blessing for the scope of service as well as the ceiling amount on the grant. So
Speaker 84
19:31
we could just do that with a paperwork change. So I guess to be more specific
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
19:37
and pointed with my question, And when will that administrative change and that communication of these organizations be delivered?
Speaker 58
19:47
It will be delivered this week. We have to make that decision. We were hoping that grant award would come so that we could then also work on some payments and some other things. It hasn't, so this week we have
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
20:00
to notify them. Well, that was my concern.
I know some of these folks, after they halted funding, they're questioning about what they're going to receive. But more importantly, they're concerned about the funding that they have now that they didn't spend that had the deadline of year end, and are they going to have any extra time to extend that.
So I think the sooner we get that communication out, that would relieve some of these parties. Yes, sir. Our intent is to honor
Speaker 51
20:27
the full amount of the subgrant for the six months, even given when we ask them to halt some duties.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
20:32
But, yes, sir, I understand sooner better than later. all right I'm sorry about that
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
20:40
thank thank you so much for answering the question senator love thank you madam chair and
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
20:49
I want to pick up where representative Beatty left off so
you you have provided a no-cost extension if I'm understanding correctly on funds that have not been expended in the
Speaker 58
21:03
grant no sir actually what we just testified to is that we
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
21:07
have to make that decision this week and representative Beatty was asking us to
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
21:13
do that as soon as possible okay so all right so now I'm confused because you all halted you all have halted spending for some programs that were
funded by TANF but then you just gave that you you did like say for instance
H A H D C. They were, they've received $752,000. So apparent it's either
you, you, you had money that was left in the grant. You didn't have money left in the grant, like kind of clarify that. Cause
it's, it's, it's a little confusing on, on this side. Have you received your award or have you not?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
21:48
We've not received the new award for federal fiscal year 26 for TANF, which started october 1 okay all
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
21:55
right so all right i got that but did you have money left over in the in the
Speaker 104
22:01
previous grant we did have some funds left over that we have spent to pay the first quarter of our state fiscal year which would have been july through september then we have we did not ask anyone to stop services until November 7th. We had gone, I think, 37, 38 days into the government shutdown in good faith, thinking that we would get that, you know, they would vote, reopen, we would get our award. When the government did vote to reopen, I believe around the 14th or 15th
of November, we then notified the subgrantees, all of them on, I believe, that following Monday that they could resume activities in good faith, but we did tell them we did not have the notice of award, but since government had been reopened in good faith, that we wanted them to
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
23:00
continue, resume their operations. Okay, so are you saying that we haven't paid any of the expenditures for that time period?
Speaker 61
23:11
Yeah. We have paid through the first quarter of the state fiscal year, so
Speaker 62
23:18
we've paid for invoices through September 30th. We have not paid October forward. We did allow them to continue working in the month of October. We asked them to halt when we got to November, and we still had the federal government shut down with the uncertainty without having a TANF grant award for federal fiscal 26. We have since told them they could restart services around the 14th of November
and told them to go ahead and send invoices for October, and they can send invoices for November minus the time period we ask them to halt activities. And as soon as we get the 26th grant award, we will work on getting those payments out
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
24:06
to those agencies for October and
November to date. Okay, so then, so for the CDCs, for the Child
Protective Child, those centers, have they been halted, or have they resumed work?
Speaker 62
24:24
All of the subgrants were halted for the first part of November, but we have since told them, since the federal government reopened, and we know that TANF is funded, we have told them to go ahead and resume activities and when we get our 26 grant award
Speaker 112
24:41
we will be able to catch up our payments okay so can i make a slight clarification to that answer so the sub grant award to this children's advocacy center is to the umbrella organization that gives technical assistance and guiding guidance to the individual 501c3s that are out in various counties and
communities I don't know what the direction from CAC has been to centers in communities so I can't speak this team we cannot tell you if they've paused operations if they've gone to a shortened day what services I can't answer that Elizabeth Pulley would need to answer
Speaker 113
25:17
that for this body so Misty didn't answer
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
25:21
me this were those grant awards cut or are we still funding
at the same level as they were funded in 2025?
Speaker 112
25:32
They were reduced. They all across the seven they all
received a pro rata reduction and that was part of the formal notice that we gave them in the letter was that we could only fund for July through December 31st this portion of each of the discretionary subgrants and that is because we are operating within the four corners of our notice of award which is 56.5 million dollars annually okay we have expended basically all
tanf reserves at this point and so just like
Speaker 116
26:11
our other grant awards we're operating on our annual amount year over year all right
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
26:18
so we were over annual amount because i guess we had we had some
Speaker 112
26:25
carryover from previous years or correct prior years when the program was at dws and particularly during covid we got influx of one-time funds and so we were able to honor a bunch of those community-based discretionary subgrants to get through that federal funding but now we're
adjusting back to the base award amount on an annual basis okay so are you're
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
26:46
saying all sub grantees not just so so at this point
Speaker 112
26:52
we're only funding seven external sub grantees we have the two that we discussed earlier those are in addition and those are statutorily required that we fund those plus we use that as our match our our moe so we have to put up some match to receive tanf and we use the abc program and part of cpi to do that we also within tanf there's a
core grant function where we give direct benefits and cash to beneficiaries, right? So the T-TANF program, and then we pay salary to TANF case managers. We also do eligibility, so that cost us money to run and operate. We had to furlough those 26 or 30 employees as well because we did not have sufficient reserves to continue paying them so the sub grants is one portion of tanaf
but it is not the entire breadth of the program senator love
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
27:53
is okay can i put you back in the queue i'm getting a long line of questions
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
28:06
please do please do thank you thank you senator petty thank you madam chair and i apologize i guess it's early in the senate side's a little slower than the house side
uh just want to clarify so the subgrants that you were talking about a minute ago that was this total subgrant award and of that subgrant award
there in some cases may be situations where they have not spent all of their subgrant and for those you're going to give a time extension is that is
that did i understand that correctly yes sir that is what we testified that the decision has to
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
28:39
notified if there is for time only extensions which would allow them to expend any of the sub grant money that
Speaker 104
28:44
was awarded to them that has not been spent okay is there a reason
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
28:51
why we wouldn't I mean that that seems like that would be easy up to the to the agency whether
or not they wanted to extend the time or not is
Speaker 58
29:02
there any reason why we wouldn't want to do that
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
29:05
I don't believe so. We were kind of hoping that the TANF award would have come last week
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
29:14
so that we could have put it all together and done one action with paying some bills and giving that extension. Okay. And then going back to earlier testimony, you were talking about, I think Representative Beatty talked about there was at least a conversation around past this initial six-month period whether or not there would be an additional six-month extension as you kind of wean these maybe off of the TANF, these subgrants or something like that.
along those lines. That's my word, but not yours. But anyway, there was a conversation around whether or not those subgrants would
get another six months. Is that still under consideration as well, or is that off the table at
Speaker 104
29:57
this point? We are not there yet with funding.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
30:02
So the time only extension is time for current funds that have been given in the subgrant for July 1, through December 31st, if they don't spend it, they can have six months to spend that.
We told them in May in the letter when we were doing the grant and having to reduce it that there was unknown if there would be new funds available for January through June.
Speaker 104
30:27
At this stage, I don't have my grant award. It's very hard for me to consider sub-granting any new money
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
30:34
if I don't have the current grant award. I understand that.
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
30:39
But it's not off the table. You just don't know yet. I mean, from looking
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
30:45
at some of our projections and going forward, it's very slim that there will be new money.
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
30:52
Okay. And the new money, was the six-month extension, was
it because of old money, I think, as Senator Lev was talking about, reserves that were left over? Or if everything comes in flat, there's no new money, does that mean the Child Advocacy Centers and these sub-grantees would not get any, or because they were included in these previous sub-grants, there would be money available for consideration.
I'm not saying you have to commit to that, but for consideration. I'm not understanding the nature behind the funding of these subgrants and the funds that were used to fund these
Speaker 58
31:40
six-month subgrants. Yes, sir. I think with the subgrants, they are discretionary if we have the funding. And
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
31:47
since we are now living within the four corners of $56.5 million a year and we no longer have reserves because they've been spent,
there's not any new funding to sub-grant when you look at the obligations that we are spending TANF on. That is the struggle that we're trying to forecast out. That's why we told them in May we are spending
Speaker 104
32:11
more and more of our reserves. I mean, I don't even think we have many reserves left. And so we chose to reduce all of the subgrants by the same percentage point to give them six months of a reduced amount.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
32:28
But we also put in that letter in May that it was unknown, if anything, would be granted in new funds in
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
32:40
January. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And before I move on to the next person, so what are you guys, are you hearing anything on the federal level? are they keeping you in the dark pretty much i'm just kind of curious if you're hearing anything so i hate to commit but just if you're hearing anything of
Speaker 58
32:55
on that level so we did hear last week um at the beginning of the week that um some of the federal funding notice of awards would
be would be coming last week we didn't know which ones they were um as reported earlier um older Americans Act, SSBG, and CSBG, and TANF were outstanding for us. We did receive two of those four categories last week. We received OAA, or Older Americans Act, I believe, on Tuesday or Wednesday. And then on Friday, we got notice of award for the Social Services Block Grant, or SSBG. We have checked this morning. We don't have anything on the CSBG for Community Services Block Grant
or for TANF so we are hoping that maybe by the you know
Speaker 60
33:41
daily we're we're trying to check on on those awards all
Speaker 143
33:48
right thank you so much uh representative Beatty I guess there's a time delay on our apologize for that madam
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
34:04
just kind of to follow back up
one can we get a list of the providers that were notified because saying when you were notified about the funding past december the understanding a lot of these providers are telling me is that that they were told there would be no funding after the end of year 2025 so could we get a list of those providers that received notice that they would not be receiving funding going forward, not that it was contended upon receipt of money, but that we're notified there will be no more money.
I think that would be helpful for members to look at and see which affected entities are in their districts. And then my question, have y'all looked at which programs you're going to fund for 26 and 27? I'm not asking about how much or at what level, but have you had decisions that the department's made that we're not going to fund this subset of organizations going forward? And I think I heard you say that there would be no new contracts.
So not looking at new providers, but only maybe looking at the ones that were already out there that had outstanding contracts. I know that's a
Speaker 58
35:24
lot, but. Yes, sir, we will get you a list. It is the seven subgrantees or the only subgrantees currently. We will get you a list of those. We've not considered any new subgrantees at all. Go
Speaker 152
35:42
ahead. I think at this point we've not had any conversations about funding external subgrants.
So whether they're an existing provider or a new obligation, at this point it's premature because we've not even received our current grant award. We do know that our grant award will be the $56.5 million, and we do know that with current operational costs as well as other obligations to ABC and CPI, it will be very difficult
Speaker 118
36:11
for us to continue funding external subgrants. thank you okay representative Allen thank
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
36:23
you madam chair thank you all for
being here appreciate the work that you're all doing yeah I'm gonna follow up on a question could you tell me how much money do you all have from the previous grant left over from the previous funding no sir we
Speaker 104
37:00
don't have the exact balance as of this morning we will get it for you
we have some projections but I mean they change every week
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
37:09
but you all did have
Speaker 152
37:13
money left correct so looking at the spreadsheet i have with me today which is is a few weeks old we headed into the new fiscal federal
Speaker 112
37:24
year with around eight million total dollars so that was to pay cash benefits that was to pay all of staff coded as well as to honor obligations that we had
ongoing. And I know that we have paid out several of those obligations because we've been paying as much as we've had
Speaker 118
37:44
liquidity to do so. And so I can get you our updated amount that we have in our current account for today. Okay.
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
37:53
But there is money left, correct?
Speaker 118
37:56
Yes. It's just insufficient to continue paying all of our obligations without the new award.
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
38:06
thank you representative Springer good morning thank you madam chair I appreciate receiving this document here but I wanted to ask about and I like to see numbers you all have separate budgets that you've this that you've made up for each one of these entities that you're providing these funds to like for instance uh if you go through the ones that have uh that are receiving the discretionary grants like
abc the a children and family ministries the arkansas alliance for boys and girls club you have separate budgets that within your department for each one of those yes ma'am okay and so you budget a certain amount and then you have then you have the amounts that you've allocated to be given spent given to those is that correct that is correct okay so that's something then that you can pull together and share with us then I guess that's what I'm getting at yes it is
Speaker 112
39:06
part of the sub grant agreement and we'll
be happy to reach out to our office of procurement and we can provide
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
39:12
those okay I think that would be helpful if we had
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
39:17
that to see as well great thank you thank
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
39:27
you thank you Reverend Springer Senator Irvin thank you you said two of two two are statutorily
Speaker 168
39:33
required um which ones were those again that is to abc and to cpi so abc department of that's a transfer them
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
39:40
to department of ed yes that's correct that
Speaker 152
39:43
is 7.5 million automatically so we pay them in four quarterly installments okay and then for cpi which is part of higher education career pathways initiative we are statutorily obligated to provide tana funding to that program and we um we negotiate with them annually about how
Speaker 112
40:05
much that budget will be based on what services they're giving and since we have taken on
Speaker 118
40:14
the tana grant we've actually reduced that number over the last couple of years that we've been in charge of
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
40:22
that okay but none of the other like the discretionaries are those are not statutory
Speaker 112
40:27
that that is correct and those fluctuate on a state-by-state basis so each each state uses their TANF block grant in
Speaker 152
40:35
a different way and some states elect to use these for external subgrants but I think
Speaker 118
40:42
mostly TANF funding goes to support child welfare and some other initiatives around
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
40:46
the four tenants of TANF. Okay and then this is it did y'all
Speaker 112
40:54
give us this list? Yes so this was responsive to a prior BLR
Speaker 152
40:59
request so we've been asked over the last few times we've discussed TANF with
Speaker 118
41:05
the legislature to give all of the vendor expenses from 19 to 2025 and so this is just an enumeration of that list and we had previously provided this okay all right and then
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
41:19
so as this list continues or changes who specifically makes the decisions so so this is a vendor list
so this is outs you have included the discretionary grant funding in here but then the additional fund expenses are from what? Administrative? Or
Speaker 62
41:45
our T and WorkPays recipients, reimbursement services or services that we, supportive services in order
for them to do the work activities required in their plans. So you'll see a variety of different things that could be also be related to serving our team workplace clients okay like
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
42:06
a restaurant's on here so what i mean i'm just trying to understand
Speaker 83
42:11
that what year are you looking at i'm so sorry 2022 um we would we would need to reach out to dws to verify
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
42:23
wood grill buffet i'm just trying to understand so we
Speaker 112
42:26
would need to reach back out to dws
because they were the administrative body at that time. Okay, when did
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
42:33
y'all become the administrative body again? 2023? July 1
Speaker 150
42:38
of 2023, the program transferred to DHS. Okay, well, it's listed also in
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
42:44
2023. I'm just trying to understand some of these expenditures of these vendors and trying to understand, you know, what this is for and then who makes those decisions. So
Speaker 58
43:00
we would let us get with DWS about some of the older expenditures.
We would not know specifics.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
43:08
And then from July 1 of 23 through current, it would be DHS. Okay, but it
Speaker 188
43:16
would be retroactive then probably 2023
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
43:18
would have been paid for services in 2020. two or 2023 it could have it
Speaker 185
43:24
well since it transferred in the middle of calendar year
Speaker 58
43:30
23 which is how this is enumerated i got you it could be it could it could have crossed over
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
43:39
okay okay and then and then the last thing that i just wanted to say too though is that federally uh if we don't let's let's just say the federal government gives zero money
for tanf then we would have to change the statute for those two
Speaker 83
44:01
programs? I think when reading the statute, perhaps there's a clause in there that says, if we don't receive any, yes, if funding is available.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
44:09
Okay, thank you. Okay, Senator Lowe. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you all for the expenditure sheet. So I'll continue to hear you all state that you're trying to operate within the $56.5 million. And so I think Representative Allen was trying to get to this, but how much was, do you all not have the budget for 2025?
Since 2026 is going to be $56.5 million, What was the budget for your budget for 2025 and then for 2024? Because what I'm looking at is these expenses, a total for just, say, 2021 was $30.6 million. A total for 2022 was $33.6 million. A total for 2023 was $55.9 million.
A total for 2024 was $47 million, and so we now see that we're at 2025. That's $48.7 million, and so we're saying that we're cutting back people, and we have $56.5 million. Now, I'm not saying that – I mean, I understand that you have administration, but I'm just trying to figure this one out. we're cutting back what's the administration it seems like we have included the our match or what
we're supposed to have with with 7.5 million in the CPI which we don't have a number for but I'm just trying to if this is the overall expenditure list right now in 2025 we're at 48.7 million. So if you all could kind of guide me through this, then I
can better understand. So in those
Speaker 62
46:25
prior years, there were more TANF reserves. There were other TANF federal year
block grant money left, which enabled workforce services before TANF program came to DHS to do Several sub-grants outside of the funding that DHS received during that time for operating TANF, the Transitional Employment Assistance Program, the WorkPage Program, the funding for our child welfare and youth services activities. There was more money. There was money on the table at that point. But over those years, that money has decreased.
That's why you see, you know, that the number spent on the TANF block grant decrease. And you're looking at a number, $48 million for 25, and the block grant for 25 is only 56.5. And that's all we are expecting going forward. So, you know, that 48.5 shows the majority of the federal year block grant being spent. Okay, so,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
47:30
I mean, don't get me wrong.
I'm just trying to better understand.
So are we trying to, I guess, incur a little cushion so that if something happens, then we have money to operate? I mean, but I guess that's what I'm trying to figure this entire thing out. Because if we're saying we're cutting back on programs, right, and we had excess, are we trying to kind of accumulate some excess? I mean, I'm not trying
to judge you whether it's right or wrong because I don't operate.
Speaker 112
48:07
I'm just trying to better understand. Thank you for your question. I understand what you're asking. So these expenses were expenses only paid through commitment item four, which is grants and aid, or through professional fees and services and interagency transfers. These expenses do not represent direct salary, fringe, benefits paid to direct clients out in the field. So these numbers are in addition to other types of maintenance and operation spending.
So you would add this money from these three types of expenses into other expenses that we paid. I do have available, and I may have shared that previously with BLR, what our annual spending on TANF has been. So like in one year. So in 2025, let's just talk 2025. I don't know the exact 2025 number. But for example, I just don't have that with me today. But, for example, we spent in one annual year $77 million total in TANF.
So we had both the base plus the reserve. In another year, we spent almost $90 million because we were honoring subgrants that were sunsetting and that we had obligations on. So
Speaker 118
49:27
I'll be happy to send those numbers and those years to this body.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
49:33
So has our base always been $56.5 million? Yes, sir. Okay, so that's been our
base. We've been expended over our base. Correct. And I hear what you're saying.
And so with the discretionary,
did you state that all discretionary has been cut the same? That's correct. So
Speaker 112
49:59
in this past sub-grant agreement time period from July 1 through December 31st, there was a pro rata percentage that was applied to all the remaining external
Speaker 118
50:10
subgrantees. So we cut them each equally based on their annual amount, the prior SFY.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
50:19
Okay, if we could get the numbers for the 2025, I would just like to see the numbers
Speaker 112
50:27
for 2024, 2025, and then. Yes, absolutely, and we have those readily available. I'm sorry I don't have those today. In addition, I think there is one other thing I'd bring forward, which is the state of Arkansas was receiving some contingency TANF money each year. That is money that comes from other states not expending their full allocation and then being redistributed to states based on application,
but you need to meet some very strict unemployment numbers and other data. We had been getting that funding when the program was not with DHS. But upon looking at the federal requirements, we stated that we do not qualify for that funding anymore. So that was a loss of funding annually anywhere between $7.5 million and $5.6 million. It
Speaker 152
51:19
just depends on how much extra from other states was available.
Speaker 83
51:25
But, again, we do not meet the federal criteria to get that allocation.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
51:32
Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
51:40
Thank you. Senator Love. Representative Crawford. Thank you, Madam Chair. Hello, ladies. It sounds like to me that you keep saying the four corners of the state, That that is something new that we're doing with the 56.5.
Speaker 152
51:57
Is that what I'm hearing? So at DHS, we maintain our grants on an annual basis. So we only do state fiscal year obligations that go up to our notice of award amount. We have been spending TANF previously beyond that amount because there was significant commitments as well as significant reserves.
We are now at a state with this grant that we are no longer able to make commitments to either our budgets inside or to external budgets that exceeds $56.5 million annually. okay so the four corners
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
52:46
of the state is not new it's what we've been
Speaker 83
52:52
doing anyway that's how we practice grant management at our agency okay all
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
52:57
right another question the new funding for the
older americans act will that help the senior centers across arkansas yes ma'am i believe so that was
Speaker 58
53:12
one of um one of the areas that we had to pause activities for a certain time period with certain sections within the senior centers not all of the senior centers but we can get you the specifics
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
53:26
okay will that be discretionary funds or no it's specific it's
Speaker 58
53:31
ongoing operations yes it's so it's not discretionary it's not new money it's it's what
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
53:40
now received it okay very good and restore hope when they pull money they pull it straight from the feds
Speaker 188
53:49
it doesn't come through the state is that correct no ma'am that is not correct that they have
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
53:55
a sub grant a tan of sub grant so they too will be getting cut yes ma'am okay didn't know that okay um how were the cac's funded before covid i mean everybody got all that extra money and so everybody is now screaming we realize that
so do you happen to know how they were funded before that
Speaker 152
54:25
again we inherited these programs from dws based on documents we've received is that the CAC umbrella organization began receiving TANF funding in 2019 and then they've received allocations since then. I am not privy to how the individual child protection centers out in
communities have been funded. I know it's been a mix between VOCA funds which I understand have also been cut we do not administer or receive voca funds they also received some funding through the commission on rape domestic violence and child abuse that's housed at uams again we don't receive those funds and we don't distribute those funds and then it's my understanding that they are all 501c3 so they do individual community fundraising and get other grants and and services but again
Speaker 213
55:26
i can't speak to that we don't operate those organizations okay thank
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
55:30
you thank you madam chair thank you representative beck thank you madam
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
55:38
chair i uh i've almost wore up my button clicking in and clicking back out and clicking back in as people ask questions so great questions from the rest of the legislators here. And I'm trying to understand a little bit. It looks like you've done quite a bit of funding out of reserves, all right,
which would indicate that there's a lot of reserves, all right? Now, maybe I'm looking at reserves the wrong way, but so the question would be, I'm just going to ask a few questions. So what mandated the reserves being built up, I mean, what caused these reserves to, first of all, accumulate, another thing. Then the other thing is I would like to see, like, you know, where these reserves were, not necessarily, like, who's in charge of these reserves?
You know, so there's this pot of money somewhere, and who is it? Is it the agencies that you're, you know, do they have reserves down in them, or is it DHS and that type of thing? And then the last thing is, it's just a request. If these reserves are there, is there any way we could see a history of these reserves, where they were, and who was in charge of them the last three years or something, maybe the last four years? So we can kind of get an idea of what happened here.
Because, I mean, it does appear that there were some very large reserves somewhere. Maybe that's needed for some reason. But anyway, answer those two questions. And if it is possible to get us the information as to the amount of the reserves, who was in charge of those reserves, whether they were transferred to you guys at some point or something of that nature,
Speaker 184
57:31
I would certainly appreciate it. So it's my understanding that these reserves had
Speaker 152
57:36
built up over time with the prior administration at DWS.
Mary Franklin can certainly explain more about that. But as T and TANF eligible recipients went down, there were less opportunities to spend those funds directly with clients. So it's my understanding that during the administration, there was a time period where they weren't distributing a lot of funds to outside agencies. I do think some of the funding went to support the WIOA boards.
Some of the funds went to support other work initiatives, but I do not think they were doing discretionary subgrants to not-for-profits in communities. Then, and I only know this because DHS got approached as a recipient for some sub-grant money, the federal government came in and had a conversation with state of Arkansas and said, if state of Arkansas cannot use the $56.5 million in TANF, we would be happy to give you a permanent
reduction, and then that way we could give this funding to other states, or you can expedite spending on reserves so then there was a concerted effort to find organizations that met the four tenants of TANF and to get that funding out to organizations that is one of the ways that our division of youth services got some funding for diversion right and for also for skills training
for our kids who were not in, um, treatment settings, right? So I just know that because we got approached, could you all utilize some funding? Of course we said, yes, we would, we would be happy to use that to help, um, our kids who are in juvenile justice. So from there, there was a concerted effort to spend down the reserves and there were lots of grants and awards made and then they were expended then the program came to DHS and we
have spent the last couple of years making sure that we could honor our commitments faithfully while still paying our employees and paying clients who were entitled to these services and at this point we just don't have a reserve we would like to have one quarter in reserves in case there is a long federal shutdown and that would be approximately 14 million dollars as i said sometime in september we only had about eight million and i know that number now is down to
about four to five million but again i will get you that exact number as of today um but that's sort of the history and i will try we have put together some of
Speaker 83
1:00:30
the documentation that you're asking for and we'll be happy to share that with you all
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
1:00:35
so just a quick follow-up so the the documentation that you're going to share with us is going to say where the reserves were in other words who was in charge of the reserves dws yes that's correct
and those balances and sort of just a i don't need a whole lot of detail here but just like a year-by-year basis how those accumulated and then how the spin down went because obviously As you said, the federal government came in and said, use it or lose it. So at some point they reached out to DHS and said, do you need some money for something? And so I would like just to see how that went up and back down and where it went when they were told to either utilize it
or we weren't going to get funded at the $56 million level.
Speaker 83
1:01:27
We'll certainly work with the other agency to flesh out some of that as well. We do have some documentation around closure of the federal grants and other information. You know,
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
1:01:38
one of the, and just as a brief comment, one of the most
frustrating things it is as a legislator is when you're funding something and there's this pot of money out there somewhere that's actually funding the same thing, and you get a feel that at
the funding level that you're at,
everything's adequate, then all of a sudden people come and they need additional funding level. Well, it's because they've been spending down reserves that were there or whatever, and we don't necessarily either we're not diligent enough to drill down to find out that there's actually money coming from another source. Again, I think what we're doing is fine. The things that we're utilizing on is fine, but it's frustrating to know that at some point funding's not enough, and it's because we were spending down reserves, and it gives us a false sense of when we're setting a budget, how to set the budget to make sure
that we fund everything appropriately so that was that's the reason for me asking for this reserve and how it got built up and where it's at now thank you thank you
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:02:44
representative senator dismay thank you madam chair so just to make sure that i because i'm looking at this list and i do
appreciate it being provided because there's a lot that i don't understand i mean i'm and i just want to confirm for them what i'm hearing is we're kind of headed in a new direction we're going to i'm i'm i'm hoping there are some formulas equations whatever where you measure
outcomes for the dollars that we're spending i mean when you have a whole bunch of money and we had excess you're less likely to pay much attention and i think that's what we find ourselves falling into and then we started funding things and now those same that maybe that weren't funded before want the same amount and all we've got to start asking for justification in particular with these nonprofits or whoever may be involved. Because if I looked at this list, I mean, I could choose to be offended from Searcy, Arkansas, because Asylum Springs is getting a one-off or whatever,
and I have no idea how that came about. It's nothing against Asylum Springs. It's just how did that work out, and how is that fair to the rest of the state? So I do very, very much appreciate this renewed look at what's happening, Because without it, I'm not sure that we are accomplishing much in a goal besides getting some money out the door. And maybe each one of these entities are doing well and above and beyond, but I hope that we're going to measure some outcomes to ensure that that's the case. Because, like I said, a lot of this is – I mean, some of this I don't think I want to know
where the money was going and how it was being utilized just by doing some quick Google searches. But anyway, so that is the plan. Y'all are going to have, number one, there's not as much money. We've got to control how we're spending it, and whatever we do spend, we're
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:04:28
going to get the biggest bang for the buck. Yes, sir. So thank you for the question. So outcomes have become a very large topic of conversation, and outcomes can vary from subgrantee to subgrantee. They're not just outcome X for all of them
because they're serving different populations or serving different entities and doing it in different ways. One area that we have been very conscious of with our sub-grantees and still having those conversations is we're wanting to see services, not salaries and fringe. Because if something occurs where we do have to make a reduction, salaries and fringe is very hard to recover from when you need to go fundraise or do something for services. So we are taking a new look at it.
We are trying to add some additional outcomes, and we are having those conversations with the subgrantees. My other
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:05:19
piece would be, you know, during COVID and those dollars coming in the state, we
essentially required a form to be signed that they knew that those dollars had the potential to be one-time money, short-lived, and to not anticipate being able to utilize those in the funds. So, you know, in essence, don't increase your overhead based on this, to your point. You know, do what you can for some short-term outcome or, you know, turn it into a long-term outcome.
I hope that we move. I think those things were signed with some of these entities that are talking about, you know, the shock of not receiving continuing funding. I would just, if that doesn't exist, make sure that everyone that receives a dollar understands that that dollar may not be there next year because of a, you know, reorganization of priorities. a new administration, whatever it may be that, you know, it is possible, uh, that they're not be there.
Speaker 138
1:06:18
Yes, sir. I'm not familiar with the form from COVID. Um, but we
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:06:23
do put, um, funding, um, funding availability clauses in all of our agreements with contracts and subgrants, but we will go back and look at it again for additional. Yes,
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:06:38
sir. Thank you, Senator. Representative Allen. Thank
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
1:06:43
you, Madam Chair. I just happened to look down this list, and I saw a company called Allen Transportation.
Let the record reflect, that's not my company. Okay. Representative
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:07:02
Beatty. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to make certain that the way I interpret the data that you provided on the sheet of vendors, These are the actual amount of monies that
have been expended and sent to these entities?
Speaker 235
1:07:17
Yes, sir. This is taken from an ACES report.
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:07:20
Okay. So the other half of this that I think would be helpful is the amount of the initial award for each of these entities to show
what they're expecting to receive. Because just a quick scan, you've got about $7.7 million left if we're operating with the 56.5 you gave
Speaker 152
1:07:48
us. So a couple of points about that. So for years that these were not at DHS, we don't have access to those,
and not all of these are on a sub-grant agreement. Lots of these were paid through purchase orders, reimbursements, other methods of payment. However, we do know through ACES that these were tied to TANF expenses. In addition, this money is on top of operating costs. So when you combine, let's just say like the total line from 2019 while that was at DWS, I'm sure if you combine that with their
operating expenses it would be way in excess of the 56.5 million i i hate that
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:08:43
the senator dismay left the room because i i think he would have been kind of keyed in on restate what you said right at the beginning of that about the some of these there are no contracts and it and you don't have that information can't find it i i
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:09:06
administered i understand that well i'm not laying blame
Speaker 152
1:09:11
on you guys for that yes so some some of these went for instance like inter interagency transfers so like payments to weowa boards for instance that was ongoing i don't know that there's an agreement or contract for that some of these amounts that are are lower amounts for instance were on purchase orders um so one of the first things we did when we took over agreements is we got a spreadsheet and we entered into
formal sub-grant agreements with all of our ongoing vendors to um just make
Speaker 83
1:09:45
sure that all of our documentation was in good order um well i i have how
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:09:54
about providing us a list of the ones you don't have information on if there's no agreement there it's yes sir i i think that might be enlightening um there are several on here that are larger awards that um that started
after 2023 um so i still think it would be helpful to have what was the award amount for those uh that you do know the the dollar amount on
Speaker 184
1:10:29
yes sir and in any of those that have happened since dhs will be happy to provide
Speaker 194
1:10:35
all the documentation available because
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:10:38
i i think uh senator dismayne's question and and the line of question he was going down is on outcomes i i think that's what
we want out of this we want to see that these programs are impactful and are changing lives and and and providing um uh the intended use of these funds to improve quality of life um i do see a couple
on here that you know the the payment to um uh dhs that's the salaries and and covering employees that 1.7 million yes on the second to last page at the top
is that just your operating cost for
Speaker 83
1:11:37
This would be a grant, most likely, either to our Division of Youth Services or Division of Children
Speaker 241
1:11:45
and Family Services. Okay. And so if it's
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:11:49
not, I think I want some information on each of these
that are going to a state entity or a state organization as to what the state's doing with that money and how it's being expended by the state, because that's one thing we do have that we hold accountable. and we can weigh in on that. Just like leg
audit. I see Arkansas legislative audit, $94,400. I don't see that looking back to 2019. So I don't know what that was for. Is there a certain audit that was required on this, or is it an administrative function that was passed on to leg audit,
what that payment was for? So
Speaker 152
1:12:30
that's likely our payment to legislative audit for auditing the program, And that may be that when we pulled it, when we keyed it into ACES, we put it in professional fees and services. So when we did the ACES extract, it came back in that manner. But in prior years, I don't
Speaker 83
1:12:51
know how the other state agency coded that payment to legislative audit, but that would be a normal ongoing payment.
I can also ask legislative audit if they were testing the TANF program when it was at DWS as well. And then
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:13:07
I guess my last question, because then that causes me pause too, just as far as the validity of the information that we have here, if you just pulled something
in from the system, But can you pull in and get a total paid, you know, like on each year or, you know, just show 2019 by entity to show the total and the change over the time frame?
I think that would be helpful, too. I know I may be asking. Just ask for the information in a different format. And if you
can't do that, just send me this information in an Excel spreadsheet, and I can
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:13:59
on that um because i i just kind of want to see the trend and on some of these because some of them new are popping up on here like pelaski county at 420 almost 425 000 um so it's just things that jump out at me not picking on pelaski county not
picking on leg audit it's just things that cause me pause and i want to see where and how that money's being
Speaker 58
1:14:26
utilized yes sir we'll we'll work on it i think what you're asking is by entity time over time right year over year right
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:14:33
you know so that way i think if you give me the total award that you have and then we can see
how how this has progressed because what i what i heard earlier is you were told if y'all can't spend this money in arkansas then we're going to reduce your your award and at that point it's like all right we need to get
rid of our reserves and then operate within the 56.5 million that that we're being given and make certain that we utilize that instead of trying to hold back a quarter's worth of reserve or you know six months of a reserve in there you need to expend this money and employ it in in the state like the program was intended and again not laying blame on you guys or on vws but the program was intended for these funds to be deployed throughout the state and sitting in a bank account over there as a slush fund is not deploying those funds to uh in the manner in which
they were intended so uh with that i'll get out of the
queue and let um let some of my colleagues speak and thank y'all for answering the questions thank you
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:15:39
representative bandy uh senator urban so yeah just follow up again these are federal funds and i just think we've got to make sure that we understand that at any point the of the of the sub grantees do we ask them how they spend this money because i mean i'm looking at a lot of this and i'm thinking that's a lot of money
that they're receiving do we ever i mean so i want to make sure that they're spending it wisely correctly and um and so we're real clear about that that's one of my questions so do we ever look at how restore hope initiative is spending the uh 6.2 million dollars
that they received in 2025 yes we
Speaker 62
1:16:26
do um they have a sub-grant agreement so they should be spending within within the terms
of that agreement when we receive invoices we do request follow-up documentation uh we give them some time but we request follow-up documentation and then we also do monitoring at least you know once a year where we may go even and look deeper so okay we are doing that okay so if
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:16:53
you'll just look at with me I just want to make sure I'm clarified 2025 let's look at 2025 on this list of what was paid out of expenses on 2025 you have seven are the sub subcontract
discretionary subgrant people alliance of boys and girls club arkansas baptist children's arkansas human development corp children advocacy centers of arkansas our house pulaski county restore hope and then uh on that last page career pathways initiative and doe those are by statute so the rest of those let's just pick uh conway county community service incorporated how is that funded so that was a sub
Speaker 118
1:17:37
grant during that time period and that's one of the ones that we have
subsequently sunsetted so we did not renew it for this this new state fiscal year okay
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:17:52
so we've limited it to we've got seven main entities but then the rest of the expenditures on here were just they
Speaker 180
1:18:02
were also discretionary grants some of them
Speaker 152
1:18:06
but like for instance if you look at this at this line that says smackies catering services for 172 000 for instance that is part of the
allocation that was given to division of youth services and they utilize that at our c-step facility to feed juveniles who were participating in that in that diversion program so rather than giving the money directly we paid we paid a bill for them okay and that came out of
Speaker 213
1:18:36
their allocation portion i got you okay so i think what may just
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:18:41
be helpful is just being able to like identify each
of these like as you i'm not sure if aces has the ability to do that but like
that that makes sense when you start looking at you know yes some of these were discretionary that pop up during the year um based on what our needs are basically is that right well
Speaker 83
1:19:05
youth services has a set allocation and they were spending out of that set allocation with this vendor but yes and then like
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:19:13
food bank of northeast arkansas they had an
Speaker 194
1:19:16
ongoing subgrant agreement okay and um we we finalized that and then we paid it out and sunset them and said they
Speaker 118
1:19:25
were not renewed for this state fiscal year okay okay all
Speaker 248
1:19:27
right thank you i appreciate it thank you thank you senator ervin and colleagues i'm going
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:19:31
to let you know today we do have a hard stop at 11 35 but if you've got a presentation we'd love
to bring you back if it's okay next month to finish up we're not going to stop right now we'll stop at 11 35 but there's a lot that you prepared for today we haven't been able to go over so if it's okay i will bring you guys back next month and to finish up we've got here maybe we'll have some more answers to some of the questions that everybody's presented today that's okay all right um senator petty thank you madam chair looks like i'm the
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
1:20:01
last one so i'll be brief thank you ladies i know there's a lot of questions have been very helpful for me and so thank you for being patient and answering these i think i understand the numbers uh but i wanted on the go forward basis uh much like senator dismayne and representative baity mentioned based on outcomes i i love hearing that but can you help me understand with the current forget about the reserve forget about the spending 90 million out of a 56 million because you don't
i think i understand all that now but going forward 56 and a half million dollars if the math is right uh roughly seven and a half million is spent uh statutory and then looking at this schedule that we had roughly 8.7 or 9 million so leaves about 40 million dollars and i know there's some administrative cost in there for salaries at at dhs what else is make is that 40 million dollars spent on roughly 40 million dollars what what are we doing with tanf with
some of these block grants and sub grants going away what are we doing because that may be something where we want to as a legislative body help you prioritize just because of your child advocacy centers or
whatever their programs are statutorily or otherwise so if you
Speaker 62
1:21:27
could help me there so in addition to those two for CPI and ABC that are statutorily required we also and CPI is 9.9 so 7.5 and CPI was 9.9 for this year we also support the activities and the
payments due our clients in the transitional employment assistance program that that is the state's cash assistance work program associated with TANF and the work pays program which is also for clients who were in the team program but who ended their team because they went to work so work pays is is a secondary program to help them just get those next steps on in job stability and help them increase their earnings so they get additional support through their time and work
pays there's the salaries for staff there are system costs related to maintaining the systems where where these service these programs are determined eligibility in the case management There are other parts of the money fund, child welfare activities in DHS and activities in the Division of Youth Services. And then also, you know, supportive expenses across the department for finance, for legal, for procurement, all of, you know, for leadership.
All the associated costs are what
Speaker 250
1:22:51
make up the rest of that 40, approximately 40 million.
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
1:22:58
Follow up. Sorry about that. uh so so basically the the tour that we did the presentation that we had uh last week or the week before last uh uh there at your workforce those those are the programs that you're talking about that are that are being paid or some of them are being funded out of out of that and then uh the the balance just a ballpark just curious on on all the administrative in-house uh don't have to
give it to me today
if you don't know it but just just ballpark of of
Speaker 152
1:23:38
the 56 million how much of it is administrative cost so in 2025 our administrative costs were right around 12 million dollars but director franklin also spoke about funds to division of children and family services so that support in 2025 was about 25 million dollars so went to the activities at the hotline
went to investigations went to fund frontline child welfare workers we also have an allocation that goes to our division of youth services as we spoke on earlier i think that was around um seven million dollars last year and then our systems cost for 2025 was right around two million dollars for instance and then um i'm just looking here and i
Speaker 118
1:24:35
don't have the salary and fringe number
in front of me but those would be additional expenses as well and that's what
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
1:24:42
you gave me just roughly close to the 40 million that we were talking about okay thank you thank you
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:24:50
all right thank you all so much if we could just um i think we had two that we didn't do um our house and a plastic those last few if we could get those done and then we'll start with the snap um next month and when we come back in january if we could answer some of the questions that colleagues had today that would that would be great so i think in your slide presentation
we had just uh two or three maybe we can finish those up by 11 30 and i will start fresh on the snap if
Speaker 62
1:25:18
i'm making sense to you mary franklin yes ma'am okay thank you okay the this slide is on the child advocacy centers which is one of the current seven discretionary subgrants the amount of their award for the july 25 through december 25 period of time was 1 million 900 thousand eight hundred and thirty three dollars and 88 cents and um they support the development in support of of the local
Child Advocacy Centers that are located throughout Arkansas. They provide specialized training, technical assistance, and subgrants to those local organizations. The goal of the grant to the Child Advocacy Centers is to, you know, for them to remain proactive in helping reduce abuse and neglect within our underserved communities across Arkansas, and to continue training and collaboration with law enforcement and the local communities to improve outcomes of abuse and
Speaker 54
1:26:14
neglect. And then our house is one of the
Speaker 62
1:26:26
sub grantees. Their grant award for the July 25 through December 25 period of time was $950,416.94. In our house, they work to empower homeless and near homeless families to take charge of their circumstances and build a better life for
themselves. The families being served usually are experiencing multiple interconnected crises and trauma, including domestic violence, incarceration, extreme poverty, health conditions, mental illness behavioral health challenges and more you know and those things in combination can definitely start a family down the road to where separation or even foster care could could be necessary so that is the group that our house works with and we also have a sub-grant with
Pulaski County Youth Services their sub-grant amount for the July through December 25 period with 250,589 dollars and 21 cents. They have an after-school program, the Emerging Champions Youth Academy. It provides professional and leadership development, soft skills training to increase their self-efficacy, to provide post-secondary pathway resources, career
certification, completion opportunities, while they're improving school attendance, graduation rates for low-income youth and to introduce them to valuable workforce experiences that's the purpose of that grant and restore hope the restore hope initiative is also a sub-grantee and their July through December 25 grant award amount was two million fifty two thousand nine hundred dollars and fifty nine cents and they focus to assist in response to crisis you know of
unprecedented growth in prison and foster care population. The 100 Families Initiative is a community-led initiative designed to help families move from crisis to civility and on to thriving lives. So that is what Restore Hope, the purpose of the grant would Restore Hope. And that gets us through our TANF portion of the presentation. Thank you all so much for your time and all this today.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:28:51
And we'd like to do Item C, Secretary Mann, just give an update on the reimbursement rates under the Living
Speaker 58
1:28:57
Choices Assisted Waiver. Yes, ma'am. Quick update. We supplied the letter. We have finished the cost report analysis. We recommended holding steady at the current rate. We did put it out for public comment that was reported last month. That public comment period ended on November 22nd, and we have received numerous comments. I actually asked
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:29:20
for the official count this morning. We got 161 comments, so we are going through those to be answered,
and then we will be coming forward with a final recommendation. Thank you so
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:29:33
much. I appreciate that. Again, colleagues, we'll be back in January to finish up on SNAP and to get the questions on TANF answered. Thank you all so much for your time today, and with that, we're done. Thank you. Thank you.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Overview of Current Status and Developments Regarding the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) [Exhibit B]
C. Update of Reimbursement Rates Under the Living Choices Assisted Waiver Pursuant to Act 213 of 2022, Section 15 [Exhibit C]
D. Other Business
E. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 2
Speaker 8
Speaker 14
Speaker 10
Speaker 17
Speaker 11
Speaker 25
Speaker 6
Speaker 36
Speaker 3
Speaker 9
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Speaker 51
Speaker 53
Speaker 55
Speaker 58
Speaker 54
Speaker 62
Speaker 68
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
Speaker 81
Speaker 83
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Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 104
Speaker 61
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Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
Speaker 97
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Speaker 118
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Speaker 168
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Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
Speaker 180
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Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
Speaker 184
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
Speaker 138
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