Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee - Senate and House
Video
Transcript
4 documents
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- Whisper
- Model
- ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin
- Processing date
- October 6, 2026
Speaker 3
1:30
If everybody could take their seats, we'll go ahead and get
started. It's one o'clock.
all right we will we will call this meeting to order thank you uh
if everybody will stand with us uh senator ricky hill will lead us in prayer lord we pray that you'll watch
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:17
over us lord we pray we'll make the decisions that that will be lasting to impact your name lord in a positive way we pray lord you'll be with all the employees throughout the government that have been furloughed off lord we pray for them and
their families that go through this difficult time lord we pray that you'll watch over them and take care of them lord we pray that you'll be with our military spread throughout the world we'll pray that you bring them home safely
to their families lord in your name we pray amen amen thank you
um no comments all right um we need a motion to approve our october 8 meeting minutes motion and second all those in favor say
aye and opposed eyes have it meeting minutes are adopted all right item c we are going to consideration of adoption for the ISP representative in it you want to talk about it all right you are recognized do you want me to come up to the front or
Speaker 29
3:25
stay no you can just do it where you are okay thank
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
3:30
you madam chair I am personally paramenopausal and have experienced
uterine fibroids a common gynecological condition that ultimately led to a hysterectomy This personal journey exposed how many women's health issues are under-recognized until they become severe, and how support and information are often limited once fertility and childbirth are no longer the primary focus. Gynecological conditions, a major women's
Speaker 35
4:05
health concern, fibroids, endometriosis.
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
4:08
sorry. Endometriosis. Yes, thank you. PCOS are among the most common gynecological disorders. Many are underdiagnosed and mismanaged, which increase the risk of heart disease, depression, and reduce quality of life. Let's see. So some of the things that I hope to get out of this study is to have some policy and public health recommendations, expand screening education
and treatment for gynecological conditions and menopause symptoms, improve data collection on menopause and perimenopause and postmenopausal health outcomes, integrate menopausal management into primary care, cardiovascular and mental health services, and to shift messaging from a narrow focus on maternal health to a broader understanding of women's lifelong reproductive health. Desire outcomes are some legislation that mandates insurance coverage for evidence-based
menopausal treatments and hormone therapy. Encourage workplace policies recognizing menopause as a health transition that can affect job performance and well-being, public awareness, and ensure coverage for menopause-related care, including hormonal and non-hormonal treatments, counseling, and pelvic health therapy, and to create a state registry or data initiative to track gynecological
and menopausal health trends across demographics. in closing we build strong systems around pregnancy and childbirth it's time to build equally strong systems for the decades of health that follows thank you thank you if there's
no objection from members of the committee then without objection we will adopt this isp and
we will direct it to the health services subcommittee which is chaired by senator payton and representative bart schultz all right thank you representative ennett all right next um on our
agenda we have an update um from the department of human services in the response to the federal government shutdown um this impact on state employees as well as our tanf program and our SNAP program. If our secretary, Janet Mann, can come to the table with Misty Eubanks, Deputy Secretary of Operations and Budget for DHS, and Lori McDonald, Chief of Staff of DHS. And we appreciate you ladies and all the hard work that you've been doing and trying to keep up with
what is happening at the federal level. We know we also have, so we'll let you introduce yourselves for the record but we know that you all have been putting in a lot of time around the clock to to respond to what's happening unfortunately at the federal level we are hoping to find I guess five more five six more Democrats to vote to open the government but until that happens we need to understand the lay of the land and clearly communicate what's happening to the state of
arkansas our state employees and most importantly to our citizens that are impacted so with that this is the reason why we called this meeting today so we have clear information and i will say from the onset that a lot of there's a lot of confusion sometimes around these funds and and how they are how they are sent to us and then how they are administered the tana funds and the snap funds are 100% federally funded. These are federal funds that are pass-throughs through
the Department of Human Services, and then we direct them. And we have guidelines on how they have to be directed. But I want to make sure that people are not confused. These are not state revenues. They are not within our control at the present moment. These are federal funds that are being withheld from the state of Arkansas. These are funds generated by the taxes that our Arkansas citizens pay into and Arkansas taxpayers taxes that we send to the federal government are currently
being held hostage because of what's happening at the federal level right now and the inability to vote for a clean resolution to continue the government. So we want to make sure that the citizens of the state of Arkansas are fully aware of what is happening and how hard this agency has been working to try to respond to the current situation. So with that I'll let you each introduce
yourself for the record and then to proceed in giving us an update. Thank you. Thank you. Janet
Speaker 42
9:14
Mann, DHS Secretary. Misty Eubanks, Deputy Secretary, DHS. Hi,
Speaker 44
9:22
Lori McDonald, Chief of Staff, DHS. mary franklin
Speaker 45
9:26
director of the division of county operations dhs thank you
Speaker 47
9:32
for having us here today i will kick it off and then we the other ladies sitting with me will give some details and then we'll be
Senator John Payton
Unverified
9:42
happy to answer questions most importantly i hope everyone is aware we did issue a press release this morning after talking with the staff we are
delaying furlough until November 22nd or later. That is for the announced and planned furlough that was announced last week for 1,500 DCO employees. That is in response to the court ruling and plans submitted by the federal government on Monday to where SNAP benefits are going to be paid. It was scheduled at 50%. It moved to 65% this morning. So guidance is fluid. We are getting updates almost every other day.
In addition to those benefits being paid, we will receive SNAP admin money, which is matched at 50-50 in the state of Arkansas. Therefore, that is how we are not furloughing as of tomorrow afternoon at close of business. So the most important thing is we are working very closely with our contractor and federal partners that are in the office, most of them have been furloughed, to get the benefits out the door.
And working on that, we had been working since Monday on payments of 50%. That changed this
Speaker 47
11:02
morning to 65% from guidance from the federal government. So that is
Senator John Payton
Unverified
11:09
tentatively where we are. We are hoping for benefits to go out the door next
Speaker 47
11:16
week. But that is a day-by-day thing, considering they made a change on us this morning. So I'll pause there.
Okay. Anybody else want to add to this at the table? Okay. So, and this is for
Senator John Payton
Unverified
11:38
the SNAP program, correct? This is solely for the SNAP program, that is correct. There's been no change to the other programs that we announced last Friday. We have currently furloughed around 70 personnel that will not change. Those were done, some were done on October 1, some were done last Friday.
I think we have a few additional furloughs that will happen tomorrow afternoon. then the programs that have not been funded for the beginning of the new federal fiscal year are still suspended. Okay, and can you
give me a list of those programs, if you don't
Speaker 51
12:17
mind? Yes, I'm going to go ahead. Okay, sure. So funds administered to our community partners through TANF, which is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families,
as well as Social Services Block Grant and the Community Services Block Grant, those continue to be. suspended and we had conversations and notices with those partners last week
okay and um and of the 70 personnel that has been have been furloughed those positions are paid for 100 percent by federal funding is that correct or is that an admin 50 50 split so it
Speaker 51
12:55
depends on each individual program the first group of folks that we furloughed as of October 1 there with our provider services and
quality assurance they're actually furloughed not due to a funding issue but due to a federal authority issue so that's a smaller program within CMS and because CMS is closed we actually do not have federal delegation authority to perform those activities and then the buckets of other people so primarily are related to TANF work so like my auditors and payment integrity who then audit TANF funds and TANF programs so primarily they're either a strong 100 percent mix of federal or a
mix where it's prohibitive for us to to continue them
on. Okay and the 1500 that we're delaying that's good news so we don't have to so those are primarily the ones out in the
Speaker 58
13:55
county operations is that correct yes they are primarily in county operations in every county in
the state yes okay and um and so uh so that's to november 22nd clearly depending on what's going to happen at the federal level um on the tana funds again i know there's been a lot of question about this
again these are payments that are being basically put on hold is that correct i mean 100 across
Speaker 58
14:24
the board yes we every recipient of tana funds was notified that to suspend operations because there was no new grant no new grant authorized on october
1 okay and when um and i know uh i'm just curious like when they received that notice was there any communication
back have we been able to try to explain that more to them i mean i've had some phone calls from people that are confused by this and i'm my my first reaction is have you not been watching the news um but i think it's important just to lay out like very very clearly you know we're talking you have to suspend operations if if you are 100 reliant on these federal grant funds which, in my opinion, nobody should be 100% dependent on a federal grant for their operations.
Can you just talk to me a little bit about those kind of communications and
interactions with people that are operating under TANF whose federal funding is being put
Speaker 63
15:37
on hold? Thank you. I can elaborate some on that, Senator Irvin. We scheduled and held virtual meetings last Friday with our subgrantees and gave them this very unfortunate news and answered the questions that we could answer.
Some of them, though, also have other entities that they subgrant to that they then had to share that information with. We followed up that virtual meeting with actual letters, but those are the communications that we've had at this point, that there is no current TANF funding available and that they should suspend those activities until further notice. And I
Speaker 47
16:22
would follow up that we have some additional related state agencies that receive TANF.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
16:28
I handled and had phone calls with each of their secretaries and followed up with
Speaker 47
16:35
details prior to the press release going out. So we did communicate the same information with them that
it would happen. Now, if they have additional funding, that's private funding or whatever, they can continue
their operations so long as, I mean, just with what they already have, what they have
Senator John Payton
Unverified
16:53
maybe. Of course. I mean, each subgrantee, we were only focused on the TANF funding. their their other funding or how they operate their entity outside of the TANF funding I would
Speaker 47
17:04
defer to to those entities to answer I don't know
okay yeah um and I just think that's really an important piece of information um as we uh go down this um as we work through this um and again you know I'll I'll open us up to questions from members of the committee and um and we'll go from there but I just I want to make sure now now the beneficiaries of SNAP they are receiving a 65 percent of their benefit correct yeah Mary okay
Speaker 62
17:39
okay this is going to be very confusing
Speaker 63
17:42
for beneficiaries what the current guidance that we are operating under from CMS is they gave us new benefit tables that all of the benefit calculations are based on, and they reduce those tables to 65%. The maximum allotments, the maximum amount someone could possibly receive from SNAP per month is now at 65%, but that's the maximum allotment. That is the only part of the process that's changed.
We still have to go through a very detailed budget calculation process depending on their income, the allowed deductions like shelter or child care or child support deductions, the standard deduction, medical deductions, and the household size to determine the actual benefits. So the reality of what beneficiaries are going to see is they're not going to be able to take what they would expect normally to receive in November and then calculate 65% of that. 65% is really the starting point, and so they will receive an amount based on all of their
individual circumstances, and it's very hard for me to say what that will be for each individual client, but that is what we are working on now and being careful about the work because we also want to make
Speaker 73
19:06
sure we do it correctly and make sure we do issue the right benefits that
USDA has told us to now issue. Okay. And so, before I open it up
to questions, what is your message to our constituents as to where they need to go for information?
Do they need to go to their county offices, or there's also a website, is that correct? Yes,
Speaker 63
19:33
our county offices are still operating, our staff are still working, we're doing business as usual, And yes, there is very helpful information on our website, ar.gov slash snap, slash snap, that we're
Speaker 65
19:50
trying to keep the latest information available out there for the public related to the shutdown.
Okay. Okay, great. All right. I appreciate that. All right. We will go to questions from members of the committee. Senator Love, you
Speaker 75
20:07
recognize? Thank you, Madam Sharon. And thank you, ladies, for coming. I
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
20:12
know this is kind of a tough time. Let me begin where Senator Irvin left off because I'm trying to understand this. So the benefits were reduced to 65%. So that's just an easy example. So if I was receiving $100, now I'm going to be receiving $65 in addition to what additional cuts there are.
Is that how you're explaining it? Well, because I mean, I'm just trying to get a very, you know, because it doesn't seem like what you said was they're not going to be receiving
100 percent of the benefit, period. So it's going to start at 65 percent. Right. So if it starts at 65 percent, that
Speaker 65
20:59
means what used to be 100 is now $65. And then we're going
Speaker 63
21:04
to apply income and deductions and calculate what the benefit would be from there. So any net countable income that we have to count based on all the SNAP rules, 30% of that net monthly income is subtracted from that 65% maximum allowance now.
So I'm trying not to be too technical. And there are some households, one- or two-person households, that may now only qualify for $16. And there are some beneficiaries who may no longer, they may not receive a benefit this month based on this new direction for this
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
21:41
partial issuance. Okay, so my question to you is, is that this is really not a government shutdown piece. It's how SNAP is going to be calculated from here moving forward.
Speaker 85
21:53
Is that correct? This is how SNAP, how USDA has directed us to
Speaker 63
22:00
calculate and issue SNAP benefits for November. So far, this information applies to the month of November. We had previously been told by USDA before the end of October, hold the November benefits, don't send them. And then there was a court case in a ruling recently, and out of that came this new guidance from FNS, which again changed this morning and gave us these new benefit tables to use
and told us, directed states, to issue the partial benefits and use the reduced table with 65% of the normally allowed maximum per month, per household size, as a starting point to do our calculations. Okay. May I quickly follow up
Speaker 58
22:48
that we have no guidance for anything after the end of November from USDA.
Speaker 90
22:53
So we don't know what will happen in December.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
22:59
So, wow. Okay. Madam Chair, let me get back in the queue because I really don't know what to say about that. So have we paid benefits yet? Have we paid any benefits for this month? We have not paid November
Speaker 58
23:24
benefits yet. Yeah, and I would just like to reiterate
Senator John Payton
Unverified
23:28
that the guidance coming from USDA is non-negotiable.
We must follow this. These are their rules to get the benefits out. And so we are trying to follow them as quickly as we can, but it's also changed from Monday to today. Do we have a date in
Speaker 94
23:45
which we will start paying benefits? We have been
Speaker 58
23:49
working with the contractor, and we are pushing diligently for next week. Have they released
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
23:54
the money so that we can pay the benefits? I guess that's what I'm trying
Senator John Payton
Unverified
23:59
to ask. Well, I think that's an important distinction.
The benefits are 100% federally funded. We send the files, and the USDA or FNS funds the cards. The money never flows through our agency. Only SNAP admin flows through DHS. So it's always operated that way. We've always just sent the files, and being a federally funded program, they fund the SNAP cards that allow the SNAP beneficiaries to use them to shop. So that has never flowed through our budget.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
24:34
So then does your office have a drop-dead deadline in which we will begin to pay benefits? It's
Senator John Payton
Unverified
24:43
as soon as possible that Mary and her team are working on. I mean,
Speaker 58
24:48
it changed this morning, so I don't have an update from this morning because we had to issue the new tables to the IT team to begin working on the files. That's why
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
25:00
I don't have a drop-dead date. So how fast can you calculate them? I mean, like this process, you all have a process.
I mean, I'm pretty sure you have a process that you do every month to do. How long
Speaker 45
25:17
does it usually take you to do that process? Well, these rules are built into our system normally, so it's just everyday business
Speaker 63
25:24
normally. Following the rules and the issuance dates, you know, we can usually do what we're supposed to do on a daily basis. This instruction means we have to change some of that. So we are targeting to do that next week.
Don't have a specific date. We can certainly circle back if that changes. But this is something we're being asked to do very quickly, you know, and not something we would normally do, right? And we also need to be, we want to get these benefits to these beneficiaries as quickly as possible. I mean, obviously, we want to get those benefits out so that our clients can access the benefits and buy food that they need to purchase.
But we also have to be very
Speaker 65
26:12
careful and do this correctly so that we do not incur additional
Speaker 104
26:18
errors in payment. And I get that, but I just
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
26:22
want to say this just for the record. I mean, like, I understand how hard you all are working, but we're talking about some individuals, some families that are used to getting their benefits on the first and third. And if we're talking about the 10th or the 15th, that really has a detrimental impact on families.
And not to say that you all don't understand that, but we really need to get this ship moving as fast as we can. And I don't want you to incur errors and different things like that, but please make sure that we're getting this done as soon as we can because this is impacting families around the state. And that right there, you all, is just something that we have to continue to emphasize. Yes,
Speaker 63
27:12
sir, Senator Love. Our team, this is our mission, helping those who need help and qualify for our programs.
This is what we do every day. It is close to
Speaker 73
27:20
our hearts, and our whole team is dedicated to getting this done as quickly as we possibly can. Madam Chair, I'd like
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
27:26
to get back in the queue because I have some questions about TANF and the other programs. Yes,
sir. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Okay, Representative Richardson, you're recognized? Thank you, Madam Chair. So based
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
27:38
on what Senator Love had just said to you guys, I'm going to make sure I understand how the process works. Originally, before all of this happened, it was automated. You went in, you plugged in the information, and it automatically went to the federal government.
They put the money on the card. Now they've adjusted how that happens as late as today. So now you not only have automation that you've got to recalibrate, but now you've got to do manual calculations, which is what is going to take the time. Is that accurate? Yes,
Speaker 113
28:07
sir. Okay. Thank you. My other question was, do you
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
28:11
know where, I know you said 70 employees, is that what I heard, that have been furloughed already? Are those in each county or are those in specific counties?
Speaker 115
28:22
No, sir. On October 1, we furloughed, I think it
Speaker 58
28:27
was 35 employees related to DIPSQA, or Provider and Quality Assurance. They were located mainly in the central office and did travel around the state. We did identify an additional, I think, 35 for last Friday. They were also, some of them, in the central office. The last few are IT-related and some auditor positions.
They are also in the central office. The furlough that was announced last Friday to begin tomorrow of the 1,500, that were all the county offices we were going to close, all of the county offices to the public for safety reasons, leaving about 202 employees to operate in DCO with Medicaid applications. So as of this morning when we delayed those furloughs,
we are not planning to close any county offices until November 22nd or later. We are working every day to see what can change with potential furlough. our goal with telling and announcing last week was to give notice that I didn't want to I didn't think it would be appropriate to furlough 1500 people with one day's notice we have holidays we have families we have lots of things to consider and so taking that into account we get we tried
to give as much notice as we could and then as soon as we could do the calculations with everything else we have with snap benefits and things we could delay those furloughs and then the team is still working on what does after november 22nd
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
30:14
look like okay thank you uh and my final question is uh i think i heard uh the chair speak about uh federal or funds or grants being used for operational for operations right some of the some some of what we're talking about some of the
operational pieces are funded through uh grants alone is that did i hear that correctly you
guys don't look like you know what i'm talking about so maybe i misheard it for the tanf program they are uh they were are released to different organizations um
Speaker 51
30:55
and and some within agencies but certainly within the department of human services we manage roughly 186 federal grants
and most all of our staff are in some form or fashion head counted across those grants some people for instance in medicaid are 100 dedicated to the medicaid grant so if we were to lose that funding equally i would not have funding availability to pay them whether that be 50 50 which is then matched with state general revenue or some of whom are 100 allocated to those grant funds like in my prior example i have some audit team who are 100 dedicated and they only look at
grant fund spending through the TANF grant but then we do sub-grant to external entities some are with state agencies and there's some are not for profits and other partner groups and a lot of them equally use that sub-grant funding to fund their day-to-day operations and they may make additional sub-grants okay thank you thank you thank you and
I just want to make sure that I'm really clear these the federal courts uh they recently rule uh ordered that the department of
agriculture disperse these snap benefits during the government shutdown by using emergency contingency funds so that is why you have partial funding from my understanding of this that's do you have any did cms or did the federal government give you any i mean that's my understanding you're they are having to use emergency contingency funds in order to pay for the SNAP benefits that they've been ordered through these federal courts, which is why you're at the 65%, which is why we're having to do what we're having to do.
But it is in relation to the
Speaker 51
32:49
government shutdown. And that is correct. And then in addition, we got state administrative funding to fund our DCO employees who do the SNAP eligibility work. So there were two parts there. they funded both the eligibility worker piece or the state administration piece as well as the 65% of the benefits piece. Okay. And that's why we were able to defer the furlough on those 1500 employees. I got you because, okay. Correct. Okay. Thank you. And so I did get administrative
funding for those employees, but not my other, not my other employees like TANF and SSBG and others. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank
Chair
Unverified
33:29
you. Representative Ennett, you're recognized for question? Thank you,
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
33:33
Madam Chair. This question is from the Boys and Girls Club of Central Arkansas. From the community-based organizations that receive TANF grants that are six-month contracts ending at the end of the year, are they going to be able to extend them to the end of the fiscal year once the
Speaker 58
33:52
government reopens i don't know i do be part to be candid i need government to reopen and i need a notice of award
for the tanf grant thank you thank
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
34:15
you representative rose you're recognized thank you madam chair a couple
of quick questions firstly not speaking of any of my colleagues in the room speaking towards the congressional
democrats if they would vote to move forward and open the government this would immediately
alleviate the issue that we're facing right now is that correct if they would
Speaker 58
34:41
vote on the continuing resolution in the Senate to reopen government, I do believe that we would not be, we
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
34:49
would be funded. Thank you. A couple of follow-ups, and you may have touched on this a little bit already. I just want to ask it specifically, but will DHS actively or be able to
honor or reimburse TANF eligible expenses that are incurred by sub-grant vendors during the shut down some of these
entities that do like, uh, homeless assistant programs and those types of, uh, work? So it's a, it's a,
Senator John Payton
Unverified
35:23
um, uh, it's a yes and a no answer. We, um, advised them last Friday to
Speaker 58
35:30
suspend duties and activities because of the lack of funding. Our intent is to honor
and pay everything that we can up until that date. I can't guarantee that I have all
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
35:46
of that money, but that
is our intent. What's the plan with TANF funding for private subgrantees like CACs?
I know in your letter you referenced also area agencies on aging, several other kind of entities, and then sub-grantees.
But what is the plan moving forward? If operations were to return to normal or if a shutdown were to continue, can you kind of give me the parallels of what's to happen for
Speaker 58
36:24
these sub-grantees moving forward? So, in May of last year, when we did six-month reduced subgrants to the TANF subgrantees, we indicated this was a six-month grant, and we were unclear about what would happen after 1231.
Unfortunately, that has become even more unclear due to the government shutdown. We don't know what will happen until they reopen and we see a notice of award. We don't know if the notice of award will be backdated to October 1 or not. So I can do a lot of what-if scenarios. I just don't have any good answers until either they pass a budget or a continuing resolution, and we can see those details. So
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
37:08
to clarify, for my sake and others, I've talked to just a second.
I got a text from a couple organizations I'm sure you're familiar with that you know are very
helpful in the state for families across our state. At this time, you don't have a lot of clarity to know one way or the other. Is that what I'm hearing? That is correct. Not a lack of desire to fund. You're saying if the funds were there, we would do this if we could. You just don't know if it's going to be there.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
37:38
Is that correct? That is correct. I would say
Speaker 58
37:41
it was a very hard day for me, for the staff last week,
when we announced what we had to announce, But we owed the transparency of what we were facing so that everyone would know. And I don't have any more clarity. The only clarity we have received this week has been on SNAP. And that is very confusing to others because what about the
Senator John Payton
Unverified
38:03
other programs that have not been funded? I don't have any clarity on those. All right. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. And it's my understanding that these contingency funds is about $4.65 billion,
but that's the only funds they're going to be able to use because they don't want to
Senator John Payton
Unverified
38:28
jeopardize some of these other programs for children. I believe that is correct. I don't know the exact number in the contingency fund. I do know that SNAP benefits nationally monthly run around $6 to $7 billion. We are $41 million a month of that expenditure. So that's the
Okay. And so long as we get our information to them, we have no guarantee when those benefits are going to get funded because the federal government is the one responsible for that and then dispersed. We have no way. We can do our part as quickly as possible, but then the rest is up to them. So, Director Franklin is going
Speaker 58
39:09
to correct me if I get it wrong. We have had conversations with our contractor to where we send the files. And if we can get the files there, if they don't change the tables on us again,
we can get the files there. They should be available the next day or the day after. So, we're working diligently to get those files
there. Awesome. Thank you. And you can send us updates as you progress on that, and I'll send it out to members of the legislature, not just this committee, just because I think it's really important that we have as best information as possible. So we've checked our box and communicate that clearly. Thank you. Senator Hill, you're recognized
for question. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
39:49
want to say I appreciate you all being here today trying to explain something that you all have no control over.
So we greatly appreciate that, and you're doing a great job on that. I want to make sure I understand you correctly, but either my friend, Senator Love, or myself did not understand you correctly on this. That y'all are working at the mercy of the federal government to get funds to y'all before y'all can
do anything. Yes. Thank you for that. Thank you.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
40:27
Senator Dotson, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. um just so i'm clear on where where we're at in all this um if if i understand it correctly you
had guidance on monday that was a lower benefit or a higher benefit the 65 was guidance from today correct the guidance
Speaker 45
40:45
on monday had reduced those benefit tables for the
Speaker 63
40:48
maximum possible benefit per household size to 50 percent the guidance this morning increased that to 65 percent of what would have been the regular maximum so it was kind of a
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
41:01
benefit to folks because it increased the amount a little bit but i guess the question i have the guidance you had on monday how long was
it taking you to go through the tables was that was that ready to to send the files out so they could start paying benefits within a day or two like you said once those file were we ready to do that or
Speaker 63
41:23
how long was that taking from no we're we were not ready to do that yet um because you know step one is making sure we understand the guidance and we're headed in the right direction to implement the guidance correctly and step two is is examining all the things you know what do we
need to update what are the impacts what how is it going to change notices what information do we need to put out you know for like mass media notifications and then how do we test this you know it part of part of our process is as we make this change to make sure we have thought about all the things that do need to be changed so that we do it correctly and included contacting our ebt vendor to make sure because the whole country is working on this right and there's a limited number
of ebt vendors so part of what we had done was reach out to our vendor are there going to be any constraints on your side are our states going to need to stagger what they send you so you can get it out so we were we're working through all those things and targeting next week it's good that we received the guidance today you know before we started actually making those changes so now we will just absorb this new information into the process as we move forward still targeting to get
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
42:47
possible so it won't completely reset the clock three days the change
Speaker 63
42:52
in guidance from today no some of the work that we had already done a little bit is is still valuable we just now
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
43:01
we know it before we've actually gone in and started making system changes okay and then I just go through my notes here real quick so as far as October is concerned those benefits were paid in full completely through the end
of October it was November going forward that the reduction in benefits because they were they were scheduled to end November 1st completely or be frozen but now with the federal
court guidance and the emergency contingency funds being released for this purpose that's why we have the now 65 percent of what october benefits were is that is that
Speaker 63
43:42
correct so october benefits were not impacted by this they were calculated and issued based on our regular rules and regular processes and regular system programming we had been
instructed to hold the November benefits not to stop making determinations and and queuing things up that might need to go to our ABT vendor but not but to hold them not to issue the benefits so we are also dealing with the fact that we have calculated benefits for these households on the old rules and now we have
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
44:17
to recalculate benefits to make sure we get the right amounts issued So, going forward, if a CR was passed today, would that, with the new guidance and the new changes in the stuff for November, if we send that all in and then a CR is passed today, tomorrow, or the first of next week, would we just automatically snap back to, no pun intended, back to the original calculations?
Or would we have to redo it all
Speaker 63
44:47
over again? So we will, when the government reopens, we will need to await additional guidance from FNS to tell us exactly what to do from there. If we've already issued partial benefits, will the reopening of the government and what is decided at the federal level include issuing the remainder of what would have normally been issued or not? I mean, we're going to have to see what instructions we get, but whatever instructions we get, we will make the changes we need to make
and implement what we're asked to implement as quickly as possible
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
45:24
and move from there back to normal. And then as of this moment, from everything that we know, the emergency contingencies funds will
run out here in November, and so it will be frozen in December going forward until there's something that happens where the
Senator John Payton
Unverified
45:42
government reopens. Um, I'm not exactly sure of expending all of the contingency funds. The ruling was for November only. We just don't
Speaker 50
45:49
have any detailed guidance for December if the, if the government, federal
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
45:54
government has not reopened. Okay. So it's just unclear. We don't know what is going to happen. So the message here is, is quite clear. Call the, uh, senators in DC, not here in Arkansas to, uh, particularly, particularly the uh the ones that are voting against funding the government thank you
and my understanding there's there's i mean we don't we don't know we can't speculate as to what's in we we're not
privy to the appropriation level i mean i'm sure we could probably look it up what the appropriation level and what the bank balance is for the emergency contingency funds but what is reported is
that it's 4.65 billion is the full amount so when that's out then to your point senator dotson if that's what's in the emergency contingency fund and it's completely fully expended in november which is why they may have changed from 50 to 65 because they're they're
trying to figure out what those calculations are based on all beneficiaries across the entire country for what that looks like for the month of November because their normal funds are frozen because of the lack of voting at the federal level. But again, that's my understanding of what's being reported. I am not here to speak on
behalf of Congress or those congressional folks. I don't know what just happened to our system. It's back. I apologize. Okay. Let's see. I'm
to go to um let's see senator representative moore you're recognized thank you madam
Chair
Unverified
47:34
chair and thank you all very much for your time this morning afternoon i guess i know it's been a very stressful few weeks here um to your knowledge at this point the usda has no plan of disruption for free and reduced lunch benefits for school students is that correct i
Speaker 58
47:57
really don't know i i don't i i just it free lunch i would defer to ade
Speaker 134
48:03
i i've had my hands
full with snap and a few things you
good okay yeah department of education is where we need to uh here i'll go back to you yeah sorry
i guess no one from ade is present uh no we do not have
anybody here from ADE, but I'm sure we can get that information to you or we'll ask Department of Ed for that. Representative Magruder, you're recognized for a question? Thank you. Thank you,
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
48:37
Madam Chair. Thank you, ladies, for being here today. We
truly appreciate you coming. It's a very trying time for all of us, and all of us are getting phone calls. I truly understand what some of the individuals are dealing with because I was young and had children in college and we needed those benefits. So my question to you all is what can I do as a legislator, especially communicating with people in my district about the current situation? Because
I'm saying the same thing that you're saying. I don't know. I'm not blaming anyone for the situation we're in. I just want it fixed and I want it fixed today. I want it fixed at five o'clock today, and when somebody asks me tomorrow, I want to fix it at 8 a.m. tomorrow, I just want the situation resolved. But to, I know you all are working hard to get people their benefits. What can I do as a state legislator to communicate with people in my district about the issues that we're facing right now, and what message should I be telling them?
Senator John Payton
Unverified
49:40
Thank you for the question, Representative McGruder. I think I would say a couple of different things. One, we are working very diligently to get the benefits out the door please check our website for updates we are trying to update
Speaker 58
49:57
that regularly with the FNS guidance as it comes out secondly I would encourage everyone to go to help arkansas.com for food bank information and I would look for churches food pantries in
Senator John Payton
Unverified
50:12
the communities to um to really see how they can help their neighbors their family their friends we've
Speaker 58
50:20
said from the very beginning of this when we announced that we were shutting down that um please check on your family please check on your neighbors please check with your churches and with you know anyone in your community to help during this time period so we can get through this. And then finally, I would say to echo what others have said
and what I have said in my previous press announcement, this is a very devastating time for us, our state, and it's time to reopen government. So I need them to go back to
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
50:56
work. Thank you so much. And Madam
Chair, I also would like for us to make sure that we are remembering the individuals who are in furlough right now that's a real concern I'm doing my best to contain my emotions but I'm very frustrated about that because the holiday season is approaching and people need to be able to survive and bill collectors need to understand
that they're in a bad situation but let's make sure we remember these individuals who are in furlough and please keep
them in our prayers right now thank you representative McGrader I really appreciate the question I think that's the key takeaway from why we're having this meeting I just want to make sure we all have the most clear information as possible because of those phone calls that you're receiving from your constituents the advice to check on people I think is so important and then yes we definitely want to remember those people that have been furloughed
have been working so hard and that and that's that's a really hard situation that we're in thank you so much for the question uh representative uh i'm going to
go to representative allen senator payton and back to senator love okay uh representative allen uh thank you
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
52:09
madam chair and i want to sincerely thank you all for coming here today and sharing your concerns with us as i said here today i listened to some of the comments that were made by my colleagues i think
right now, not just the state of Arkansas, but the country in general is in a crisis. And whenever we're in a crisis, it's very easy to say it's your fault or my fault. But I don't think this is the time for us to finger point because if you really assess a situation, it's enough blame for everybody in Washington, D.C. We can't blame one party for it or the other party for it because in a situation like this. Our country needs to be
unified and we need to move forward in the state of Arkansas because we're going to have a lot of families that will not have a holiday season. Families that will not be able to survive. So we are in crisis mode right now in the state of Arkansas and what we need to do is work together to try to get this problem resolved. Would you agree? yes sir thank you thank
you representative allen i think they're doing everything they can within
their power and it's the issue is uh we're we are in a crisis not of our own making so we're responding as best we can um senator payton recognized thank you madam chair and ladies
Senator John Payton
Unverified
53:43
like center hill i really appreciate the situation you're in there these are federal programs and federal dollars and federal guidance and you're being placed here in front of this committee and people are asking you for answers and assurances as to what the landscape is going to be in the
future or what it is now and if i'm correcting what i've heard you say i mean the state of arkansas has very little if any lead way on how these programs are operated the ones that are shut down because of the government shutdown are shut down because they're totally federal programs and totally federally rules and guidance and so as long as we have a minority in Washington that's
holding their breath and stomping their foot and trying to shut down the entire government so that they can argue about two or three points we don't know whether these programs are going to end up in those negotiations or not. And even if the government was to reopen in a few days under new negotiations instead of a clean CR, there's nothing you can give us here today in the way of assurances as to whether those subcontractors are going to be paid back pay and whether people
are going to be put back in to work from furlough. I mean, I've been a part of a few minorities here in in little rock since i started serving 13 years ago and in arkansas you know we we require a super majority to pass an appropriation and we have had situations where a small group of legislators including myself would hold up an appropriation for an item but it wasn't to put the whole budget on renegotiation and from what I understand what's going on
in in Washington DC is if the minority gets their way they want to put the whole thing back on the table and renegotiate everything instead of passing a clean CR so the only way that these programs the only way that we can count on these programs looking like they did before the shutdown is if there's a clean cr and not a renegotiating of the programs is that right i am
unclear about the renegotiation but i need
the dhs needs a clean cr passed at the federal level to be funded back to october one for us to be able to go back and refill what
Speaker 98
56:26
we were doing. So basically, unless it's a clean CR, we don't know what the programs
Senator John Payton
Unverified
56:32
are going to look like going forward. If it's a clean CR, then the programs revert back to what they were through the end of the CR. Yes, sir.
With the clean CR, I know what's in it. If anything else is done, I don't. So that's why I'm hesitating on how
to answer. Well, that's my point. That's my point. In other words, we're being held hostage by a minority that, in Washington, D.C., we've had 55 yes votes and 45 no votes for weeks now. And I thought we were a democracy, but anyway, it doesn't seem to be. Thank you.
Thank you. Senator Love, you're recognized for question?
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
57:18
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess
I've been listening to all this, and it's kind of perplexing. We know how politics works. I mean, and so it is a democracy because the minority party has a voice. That's what a democracy is. And so, therefore, whether you like that or you don't like it, that's how democracy works. and we need to come to the table and actually work everything out.
So as Representative Allen says, for us to play the blame game, there's enough blame to go around. But as a democracy, a minority party does have a voice. The Republican Party was in the minority once before, and they had a voice,
and they've been able to hold up different things. So, therefore, we should not frown upon this. Now, what
my true question was, was I wanted to know some of the programs that were funded out of the other two grants.
Because you talked about the TANF. But what are some of the other programs that are funded out of the, I think you said it was a block grant and also a community services block grant. So,
do we have some of the programs? Because I know that the CACs are funded out of TANF. I know that the Boys and Girls Clubs are funded out of TANF. I've heard from them. But what about the other two block grants? What programs are
Speaker 63
58:55
funded out of them? The Community Services Block Grant is administered through the Division of County Operations at DHS.
And that funding goes to the state's 15 community action agencies across the state. They serve the entire state together with different programs that are with the goal of helping lower-income individuals to become self-sufficient. They provide a variety of different services, and each agency may not serve or have the exact same services because it is community-based, based on community needs assessment.
but the community services block grant is impacted by the federal government shutdown because at this point there is no
Speaker 65
59:40
federal year 26 appropriation for that program or a funding award for that program. Community service block grant, the 25 award, in that block grant program, it happens to carry over. It has a two-year period of performance, so some of the agencies still have funding and some don't. But at DHS, our administrative funding has reached its maximum.
Speaker 63
1:00:07
We can no longer, and that's what led to the furloughs of our community service
Speaker 51
1:00:17
Okay, and what was the other block grant? Yes, the other one is our social services block grant. We received that. It's approximately $14.3 million in annual allocation. Some of that money goes to fund things inside. So like, for instance, our travel for our child welfare attorneys, as well as some preventative services, both in DYS and DCFS.
So part of that funding remains in-house to do our day-to-day operations as it is aligned with social services block grant, which is primarily to preserve people in their communities. And then we do a few small external grants with Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, Arkansas Spinal Cord Commission, and a few area agencies on aging get a little bit of additional money through that. So it's a combination.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:01:14
Okay. All right. My last comment, Madam Chair, is this, is that, you
know, I know that people want to assign blame, and I think this is just not the time to assign blame. As I said, you know, democracy functions to where the minority party does also have a voice, and I think that once you're fighting for Arkansans and fighting for Americans, you should have a voice. And so I would caution us against that, trying to chill the voice of the minority party.
Thank you. Thank you. Senator Payton, you're recognized. Thank
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:01:55
you, Madam Chair. I'd just like to point out to my esteemed colleague that having a voice does not guarantee
that you get your way. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions? All right. We're just going to go to questions. I appreciate the updates from everybody. And like I said, I think, you know, my closing statement is y'all are doing the very best you can to react to a very difficult situation that you did not create.
You're working around the clock to help serve Arkansans in response to what's happening at the federal level. And, yeah, you have responsibility because you have a vote. And if you choose to vote one way or you choose to vote another way, that's your responsibility. And the accountability falls on you and the way you vote. So you don't renegotiate an entire policy and pass legislation that's been enacted into law by holding funding hostage for every single thing in the entire government.
And that is what's happening right now at the federal level. So, yes, there is blame because people need to vote and vote accordingly. And their vote carries weight and or why have a vote? So they're elected to cast that vote, and I hope that they will cast that vote, recognizing the difficult situation they're putting every citizen in in the state of Arkansas and our state employees in in the state of Arkansas. With that said, I appreciate y'all being here today. Under other business, I just want to thank you so much.
I appreciate it. And like I said, I think it's important that we go to helparkansas.com and also for constituents to check their county offices. and to keep communication and check the websites so that they make sure that they get their information in as quickly as possible. If changes have been benefits have been changed, criteria to meet those benefits have been changed. And I just want to make sure that we're real clear. DHS when they issue benefits, they are not the ones that are issuing the benefit
the benefit is not money. The benefit is the approval to receive the money from the federal government so they're they're issuing the benefit and saying yes we approve they've met the criteria from the federal government but the money itself is actually if you look at benefit the money is actually from the federal government so we have no guarantees on that timeline as to when they may send those out the federal government we don't have any control over that so i just want to make sure that that was very clear um on other business
i just wanted to give everybody an update uh quickly on what is happening with the state of arkansas submitting um submitting the uh the rural health transformation program so uh the there has been there's been a process for the rural health transformation program this is the program that was passed in the one big beautiful bill and
so with the with this program there's a lot of different criteria that was put out by the federal government this governor Sanders and her administration put forward a process to receive ideas proposals from people in the state of Arkansas there was a robust response to that with excellent ideas great proposals and from those proposals and ideas was created the application to the federal government on behalf of the state of Arkansas so this program
is going to operate and function a lot differently than what we may have been used to under ARPA or CARES money. So this application to the federal government is robust. It has been issued by Governor Sanders' administration. I think it hits a lot of the different points that have been laid out in the federal government so that we can get the maximum amount of funding from the federal
government for this rural health transformation program so we will send that out to everybody so that you can review it it's about 126 pages long but you can look through that review that once we get hopefully an approval on this we'll see how much money this will then finally shake out it's kind of a two-step approach and then from that funding and approval the different implementation of these programs will then occur so I just want to give everybody an update on that
it was a really fast turnaround and they've done a really good job there's a small committee with DFNA, Jim Hudson, Dr. Kay Chandler, our Surgeon General, Dr. Renee Mallory, our Secretary of Department of Health, Renee Mallory, our Secretary of DHS, Janet Mann, and then I believe also Dr. Thompson is a part of that committee that have reviewed that. So that application to the federal government has been submitted. So we'll send that out for everybody to review.
I think it's really good news, and I think the state of Arkansas is positioned very well to get the maximum benefit, we hope, from this program, because I think it's desperately needed. So if you have questions about that, you can ask me. I'd be happy to help you through that. All right. Appreciate everybody attending today. Appreciate the hard work. And if there's no other business to come before the committee, we're adjourned. Thank you.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Consideration to Approve the October 8, 2025, Meeting Minutes [Exhibit B]
C. Consideration for Adoption of Interim Study Proposal 2025-086 by Representative Denise Ennett – To Create the Arkansas Legislative Study on Perimenopause, Menopause, and Postmenopause Health; And for Other Purposes [Exhibit C]
D. Update on Department of Human Services (DHS) Response to Government Shutdown and TANF Funding Impact
E. Other Business
F. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 2
Speaker 1
Speaker 3
Speaker 7
Senator Missy Irvin Chair
Unverified
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
Speaker 29
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
Speaker 35
Speaker 42
Speaker 44
Speaker 45
Speaker 47
Senator John Payton
Unverified
Speaker 51
Speaker 58
Speaker 63
Speaker 62
Speaker 73
Speaker 65
Speaker 75
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 85
Speaker 90
Speaker 94
Speaker 104
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
Speaker 113
Speaker 115
Chair
Unverified
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
Speaker 50
Speaker 134
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
Speaker 98
Speaker 176