Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee - Senate and House
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- October 2, 2026
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 if everybody will stand with us Senator Ricky Hill lead us in prayer. we pray that you will watch
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:22
over us Lord. we pray that we'll make the decisions that that will be
lasting to impact your namelord in a positive way. We pray Lord, you'll be with all the employees throughout the government that had been furloughed offload we pray for them and their families as they go through this difficult time or re 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 thank you no comments. All right
we need a motion to approve ouroctober 8 meeting minutes motion and second all those in favor say aye and opposed eyes have it meeting minutes are adopted. All right. itemdam C we are going to consideration of adoption for the ISP uhpresentative innnett you want to talk about it all right you are recognized do you want me to come up to the
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
3:35
OK thank you madam chair I am personally p perimenopausal 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 underrecognd until they become severe and how support and information are often limited once fertility and childbirth are no longer the primary focus
gynecoynecological conditions a major women's health concern fibroids interme intermeosis
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
4:15
pcS are among the most common gynecological disorders manyy are under diagnosed and mismanaged which increased the risk of heart disease, depression and reduced 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 improved 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. desirre outcomes or some legislation that mandates insurance coverage for evidencebased menopausal treatments and hormone therapy encourage workplace policies recognizing menopause as a health transition that can affect job performance and wellbeing
public awareness and ensure coverage for menopauserelate 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 Senatoreyton and Representative Bart Schultz. all right thank you Representative Annnett all right next, on our agenda we have an update from the department of humanman Services
in the response to the federal government shutdown this impact on state employees as well as our TAnF program and our snap program if Miss of our secretary Janet mann can come to the table with Mr Eubanks deputy secretary ofperations and budget for DHS andlourie Mcdonald chief of staff of DH S 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 guess5 more uh56 morecras 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 tannaines and the snap funds are 100% federally fundedly funded these are federal funds that are passthroughs through the
department of humanman Services and then weir 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 trans to respond to the current situation so with that I'll let you
each introduce yourself for the record and then
Speaker 41
9:15
to proceed in giving us an update. Thank you.
Speaker 42
9:23
thank you janet mann DHS secretary. M DUannks deputy secretary DHS.
Speaker 44
9:27
Hiloriri Mcdonald chief of staff DHs. Mary Franklin, director
Speaker 45
9:31
of the division of county operations DHS. thank you for having us
Speaker 47
9:37
here today I will kick it off and then we the other ladydy sitting with me will give some details and then we'll be happy to answer
Senator John Payton
Unverified
9:48
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 1500 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 at50% it moved to65% this morning so guidance is is fluid we are getting updates almost every other day in in addition to those benefits being paid we will receive snap admin money which is matched at 5050 in the state of Arkansas therefore that is how we are 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 of50% that changed
Speaker 47
11:07
this morning to65% from guidance from the federal government so that is tentatively where
Senator John Payton
Unverified
11:14
we are we are hoping for benefits to go out
Speaker 47
11:21
the door next week. but that is a day by day thing considering they made a change on us this morning. So I'll I'll pause there and OK anybody else want to
add to this at the table? OK. so um, and this is for the snap program, correct? This is solely
Senator John Payton
Unverified
11:43
for the snap program that is correct. there's been no change to the other programs that we announced last Friday we have we have
currently furloughed around70 personnel that will that will not change those were done some were done onoctober 1, some were done last Friday. I think we have a a few additional furloughs that will happen, tomorrow afternoon and then the programs that have not been funded for the beginning of the new federal fiscal year are still suspended . OK, and can you give me
a list of those programs if you don't
Speaker 51
12:24
mind I'm gonna go ahead OK 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 and and
of the se0 personnel that has been have been furloughed those positions are
paid for 100% by federal funding is that correct or is that an admin 5050 split so it
Speaker 51
13:00
depends on each individual program. the first group of folks that we furloughed as ofoctober 1 there with our provider services and quality assurance they're actually furloughed not due to 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 tniff work so like my auditors and payment integrity who then audittana funds andAF programs so primarily they're either a strong 100% mix of federal or a mix where it's prohibitive for us to to continue them on. OK and the fi500 that
we're delaying that's good news so we
don't have to do so those are primarily the ones out in
Speaker 58
14:00
the county operations is that correct? yes they are primarily in county operations in in
every county in the state yes and and so so that's to November 22nd.learly depending on what's going to happen at the federal level. on the tanna 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?
Speaker 58
14:29
I mean 100% across the board Yes we every recipient ofAna funds was notified that to suspend operations because there was no new grant no new grant authorized onoctober one. OK. and when
and I know 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 but I think it's important just to lay out ex 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 they can you
just talk to me a little bit about those kind of communications and interactions
with people that are operating under TAoff who's a federal funding is being put on hold.
Speaker 63
15:42
Thank you. I can elaborate some on that senator I r vi n we had we scheduled and held a 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 that virtual meeting with actual letters but those are the communications that we've had at this point that that there is no current tenta funding available and that they should suspend those activities until
Speaker 47
16:27
further notice. we have some additionals related state agencies that
Senator John Payton
Unverified
16:33
receive TAfI handled and had phone calls with each of their secretaries and followed up with
Speaker 47
16:40
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 if what they have maybe. of course I
Senator John Payton
Unverified
16:58
mean each subgrantee we were only focused on the tanna funding they're their other funding or how they
Speaker 47
17:07
operate their entity outside of the tanna funding I would defer to
to those entities to answer I I don't know. OK yeah and I just think that's really an important piece of information as we go down this as we work through this and again, you know, I'll I'll open a set of questions from members of the committee and and we'll go from there but I just I want to make sure now now the beneficiaries ofsnap they are receiving
Speaker 62
17:41
a65% of their benefit, correct? Yeah Mar this is
Speaker 63
17:47
going to be very confusing 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 to65%, the maximum allotments or the maximum amount someone could possibly receive from Snap per month
is now at65% but no that's the maximum allotment that is the only part of the process that's changed we still have to go through very detailed budget calculation process depending on their income they'll allowed deductions like shelter or childcare or child support deductions the standard deduction medical deductions in the household size to determine the actual benefit 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 calculate65% of that it's it65% 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 that is what we are working on now and being careful about the work because we also want to make sure we do it correctly and make sure we do issue the right
now issue and and so before I open 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 and or is there there's also a website is that correct yes our county
Speaker 63
19:38
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 aar.gov/snap slash snap that had that where we're
Speaker 65
19:55
trying to keep the latest information available out there for the public related to the shutdown OK great right I
appreciate that all right we will go to questions from members of the committee Senator Love, you're recognized thank you madam chair and thank you ladies for
Speaker 75
20:12
for coming. I know this is a kind of a tough
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
20:19
time let me let me begin where senator Irving left off cause'm I'm trying to understand this so the benefits were reduced to65% so that's just just an easy example so if you if I was receiving $100 now I'm going to be receiving65 in addition to what additional cuts there are is that is that how you're explaining it? well cause I mean'm I'm just trying to get a a very you know because it doesn't seem
like it what she said was they're not going to be
receiving 100% of the benefit period so it's going to start at65% so if it starts at65% that means what used to be 100
Speaker 65
21:04
is now65 dollars. and then we're going to apply income and deductions and and
Speaker 63
21:09
calculate what the benefit would be from there so any net accountable income that we have to count based on all the SnA rules,30% of that net monthly income is subtracted from that 65 %
maximum allowance now so you know I'm trying not to be too technical and there are there are some households one or two person households that may now only qualify for a 16 dollars, uh, and there are some beneficiaries who may no no longer they may not receive a benefit this month based on this new direction for
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
21:46
this partial issuance OK 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 from here moving
Speaker 85
22:00
forward. is that correct? This is how Snap how USDA has directed us to
Speaker 63
22:05
calculate and issue snap benefits for November so far this 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 you 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 to issue the partial benefits and use the reduced table with with65% of the normally allowed maximum per month per household size as a starting point to do our calculations. OK Ma may I quickly follow up
Speaker 58
22:55
that we have no guidance for anything after the end of
Speaker 90
22:58
November from USDA. so we don't know what will happen in december.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
23:08
so Well, OK madamir, let me get back in the queue because I I really don't know what to say about that so we're we're have have you have we paid benefits yet? Have we paid any benefits for this
Speaker 58
23:26
month? We have not paid November benefits yet. and would just like to
Senator John Payton
Unverified
23:33
to reiterate that the guidance coming from USDA is non negotiable. We we must follow this these are their rules to get the benefits out. and so we we are trying to follow them as as quickly as we can but it's also changed from Monday to today. Do we have a date in which we will start paying benefits
Speaker 94
23:50
we have been working with the contractor and we we are
Speaker 58
23:56
pushing diligently for next week like have
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
23:59
they released the money so that we could pay the benefits? I
Senator John Payton
Unverified
24:04
guess that's what I'm trying to ask 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 the DHS so it's always operated that way. we've always just s sent the files and
being a federal ly funded program, they fund the snap cards that allow the Snap beneficiaries to use them to shop. So that so that has never flowed through our budget. So
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
24:41
then does your office have a drop dead deadline in which we will begin to pay benefits it's as soon as possible
Senator John Payton
Unverified
24:48
that Mary and her team are working on I mean it it it changed this morning so I
Speaker 58
24:53
I don't have an update from this morning because
we had to issue the new tables to the to the IT team to begin working on the files. that's why I don't have a drop
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
25:05
dead date. So how fast does it can you calculate them? I mean like like this process you are you all have a process. I mean I'm pretty sure you have a process that
you do every month to to do how long does it usually take you to do that process? Well
Speaker 45
25:22
these rules are built into our system normally so it's just
everyday business normally following the rules
Speaker 63
25:29
and the issuance states 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 umc circle back if that changes but this this is something we're being asked to do very quickly you know and 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 and buy food that they need to purchase. but we also have to be very careful
Speaker 65
26:17
and do this correctly so that we do not incur additional, you know errors
Speaker 104
26:23
in payment and I get that but I'm I'm I just wanna say
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
26:28
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 the benefits on 1st and3rd and if we're talking about the 10th or the 15th that really has a detrimental impact on families and and not to say that you all don't understand that but like we we really need to get this ship moving as fast as we
can and 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 that right there you are is just something that we have to continue to emphasize
Speaker 63
27:17
senator loveve 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 our hearts and
Speaker 73
27:25
our whole team is dedicated to getting this done
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
27:29
as quickly as we possibly candamir'd like to get back in the queue because I have some questions
aboutanniff and the other programs sir thank you thank you sir ok uhpresentative Richardson you recognize thank you
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
27:43
madam chairir. so based on what Senator Love had just said to you guys, I'll 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 I
mean 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
Speaker 113
28:12
take the time. Is that accurate? sir ok thank you my
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
28:16
other question was do you know where I know you said70 employees is that what I heard that have been furloughed already? What are those in each county or are
Speaker 115
28:27
those in specific counties? no sir we onoctober one we furloughed I think it was35
Speaker 58
28:34
employees related to dipp squaw or provider in quality assurance they were located mainly in the central office and it did travel around the state. We did identify an additional, I think35 for last Friday. they were also some of them in the central office the last few our IT related and some auditor auditor positions they are also in the central office the furlough that was announced last
Friday to to to begin tomorrow of the 1500 that were all the county offices we were going to close all of the county offices to the public for for safety reasons leaving about 202 employees to operate in DCco 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 we were working
every day to see what can change with potential furlough and our 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 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
30:19
look like? thank you and my final question is I think I heard the chair speak about 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 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 that they are they were are released to different organizations. and and some
Speaker 51
31:00
within agencies but certainly certainly within the department of humanman Services. we manage roughly 186 federal grants and most all of our staff are in some form or
fashion headcouned across those grants. Some people for instance in Medicaid or 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 5050 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 TAf grant. but then we do subgrant to external entities summer with state agencies and there some are not for profits and other partner groups and a lot of them equally use that subgrant funding to fund their day to day operations and they may make additional subgrants. OK thank you thank you madam and I I just want
to make sure that I'm really clear the federal
courts, uh, they recently rule ordered that the department of agriculture disperse the SnAP benefits during the government shutdown by using emergency contingency funds so that is why you have partial funding from my understanding of this 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 the65% which is why we're having to do what we're having to do but it is
Speaker 51
32:54
in relation to the 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 works so there were two parts there they funded both the eligibility worker piece or the state administration piece as well as the65% of the benefits piece and that's why we were able to
to defer the furlough on those 1500 employees because ok correct OK thank you and so I did get administrative funding for those employees but not my other not my other employees liketanniff and and SsBG and others all right thank
Chair
Unverified
33:34
you uhpresentative Ennett you're recognized for a question thank you
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
33:38
ma'am chairir. this question is from the boys and girls clubb of central Arkansas from the communitybas organizations that receive 10 of 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 government
Speaker 58
34:02
reopens. I don't know . Id be part to be candid. I need government to reopen and I need a notice of award for the taF grant thank you thank
you Representative rose you're recognized thank you madam chairir. a
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
34:20
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? they would vote on the continuing
Speaker 58
34:46
resolution in the senate to reopen government. I
do believe that we would not
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
34:54
be we would be funded a couple of follow ups and you may have touched on this a little bit already I just wanna ask it specifically but will DHS actively or be able to honor or reimburseanne eligible expenses that are incurred by subgrant vendors during the shutdown
some of these entities that do like
homeless assistant programs and those types of work so it's
Senator John Payton
Unverified
35:28
a it's it's a yes and a no answer. We advised them last Friday to suspend duties and activities
Speaker 58
35:35
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 of that money that that is our intent.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
35:54
what's the the plan with Tanna 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 subgrantees but what is the the plan moving forward if if operations were to return to normal or if a shutdown were to continue, can you kind of give me the the parallels of of
Speaker 58
36:25
what's to happen for these subgrantees moving forward so in May of last year when we did six month reduced sub grants to the TAf subgrantees we indicated this was a six month grant and we were unclear about what would happen after 12:31. unfortunately that has become even more unclear due to the 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 tooctober 1 or not. so it's very diff I can do a lot of what if scenarios I just don't have any good answers until they either they pass a budget or a continuing resolution and we can see those details so to clarify for
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
37:13
my sake and others I've talked to just a second I got a text from a couple of organizations I'm sure you're familiar with that you would find very 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 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
Senator John Payton
Unverified
37:43
it's going to be there is that correct? That
Speaker 58
37:46
is correct. I would say it was very hard day for me for the staff last week when we announced what we had to announce that we 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 to others because what about the
Senator John Payton
Unverified
38:08
other programs that have not been funded I I don't have any I don't have any clarity on those thank you thank you
madam chairir. thank you and it's my understanding there that this these contingency funds is about4.65 billion dollars but that's the only fence they're going to be able to use because they don't want to jeopardize some of these other
Senator John Payton
Unverified
38:29
programs for children . I believe that is correct I don't know the exact number in in the contingency fund. I do know that snap benefits nationally monthly run around6 to7 billion dollars we are41 million dollars a month of of that expenditure so that's the only numbers I can I
as we get our information to them, we have
no guarantee when those benefits are going to get funded because the federal government's the one responsible for that and then dispersed there's we have no way we we can do our part as quickly as possible but then the rest is up to them. so Director Franklin's going to
Speaker 58
39:14
correct me if I get it wrong. We have had conversations with our contractor to where we send the files and is 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 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 this best information as possible so we've checked our box and and and communicate that clearly. thank you Senator Hill,
you're recognized for question thank you madam chairir. just
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
39:54
want to say I appreciate y'all being here today trying to explain something that y'all
have no control over so we greatly appreciate that and you're doing doing a great job on that. I want to make sure I understand you correctly the leader, 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 dotson you're recognized thank you madam Chair
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
40:35
just so I'm clear on where where we're at in all this if if I understand it correctly you had guidance on Monday that was a lower benefit or a higher benefit the65% was guidance from
Speaker 45
40:50
today correct the guidance on Monday had reduced
Speaker 63
40:53
those benefit tables for the maximum possible benefit per household size to50% the guidance this morning increased that to65% of what would have been the regular
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
41:07
maximum so it was kind of a 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 fi were we ready to do that or how
Speaker 63
41:28
long does that take from Monday we we were not ready to do that yet 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 in 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 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 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 state's gonna 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
Speaker 85
42:47
still targeting to get benefits out next week if at all possible so
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
42:52
it won't completely reset the clock3 days. the change in guidance from today it's just
Speaker 63
42:57
a matter that we had already done is is still valuable we just now we know it before we've actually gone in and started making system changes and
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
43:06
then I just go through my
notes here real quick So as far asoctober 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
now65% of whatoctober benefits were is that is
Speaker 63
43:47
that correct? So yeahoctober benefits were not impacted by this. They were calculated and issued based on our 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 EBT 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 to recalculate benefits to make sure we get
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
44:22
the right amounts issued so going forward if if a CR was passed today would that wi with the new guidance and the new changes in the the stuff for November if we send that all in and then 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 over again so we we will when the
Speaker 63
44:52
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 we're gonna 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
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
45:29
possible and move from there back to normal 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 a something that happens where the government reopens.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
45:47
I'm not exactly sure of the expending all of the contingency funds the ruling was for November only.
Speaker 50
45:54
we just don't have any detailed guidance for December if the if the government
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
46:00
federal government has not reopened so it's just unclear we don't know what is gonna happen so the message here is is quite clear call the senators in DC not here in Arkansas to particularly particularly the 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 meanmm sure we could probably look it up with the appropriation level and what the bank balance is for the emergency contingency funds but what is reported is that it's4.65
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 from50% to65% 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 because their normal funds are frozen because of the lack of voting at the at the federal level so but again you know 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. oh it's back. I apologize OK let's see. I'm going to go to let's see senator uhpresentative Moore you're recognized
Chair
Unverified
47:39
thank you madam 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. to
your knowledge at this point the USDA has no plan of disruption for free and reduced lunch benefits for school students is that
Speaker 58
48:02
correct? I really don't know. I don't just it free lunch I would defer to ADEd I've
Speaker 134
48:08
had my hands full with snap and a few things good? OK. yeah
Department of Education it's where we need to
here I'll get back to you sorry I
guess no one from ADE is present no we do not have
anybody here from AdE but but I'm sure we can get that information to you or we'll ask the department of edd for that. Representative Macgruder you're recognized for
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
48:41
a question thank you thank you madamir. 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 wanna fix at5
o'clock today and when somebody asks me tomorrow I want it fix 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 what message should I be telling
Senator John Payton
Unverified
49:45
them thank you for the questionpresentative Mcgregor. 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 that regularly with the
Speaker 58
50:02
FNS guidance as it comes out. Secondly, um, I would encourage everyone to go to helparkansas.com for food bank information and wouldd look for churches food pantries in the communities to to really see how they can help their neighbors, their
Senator John Payton
Unverified
50:19
family, their friends. we've said from the very beginning of this when we announced that we were
Speaker 58
50:29
shutting down that 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 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 for us, our state, and it's time to reopen government. so I I need them to go back to work
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
51:01
thank you so much and madam chairir 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 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 build collectors need to understand that they're in a bad situation but let's make sure we remember these individuals who aren in furlough and please keep them in our prayers right now.
thank youpresentative MacGreder. 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've been furloughed have been working so hard and it's and that's that's a really hard situation that we're in.
thank you so much for the question uhpresentative I'm gonna
go to Representative Allen Senatoreyton then back to Senator Love, OK? uhpresentative Allen thank you malin and
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
52:14
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 DC 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 be unified and we need to
move forward in the state of Arkansas because we haven't 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? sir thank you thank
you Representative Allen. I think they're doing everything they can within their power and
it's it's the issue is we're we're in a crisis not of our own making. so we're responding as best we can. Senatoreyton recognized thank you madam
Senator John Payton
Unverified
53:48
chair and ladies like Center hill, I really appreciate the situation you're in there's 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's going to be in the future or what it is now and
if I'm correct in what I've heard you say, I mean the state of Arkansas has very little if any leadway 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 gonna be put
back in to work from furlough I mean I've been a part of a few minorities here in in littlettleRock since I started serving 13 years ago and in Arkansas you know we we require a supermajority 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 as 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 1 for us to be able to go back and and and and
Speaker 98
56:31
refill what we've what we were doing so basically unless it's a clean CR we don't know what
Senator John Payton
Unverified
56:37
the programs are gonna 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 that's why I'm hesitating on on
the answer that's my point in other words we're being held hostage by a minority that inordC we've had55 yes votes and45 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
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
57:23
for question thank you madam chairir.
I guess I've I've been listening to all this and it's 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 aspresentative Valence says for us to play the blame game and there's enough blame to go around but as a democracy a minority party does have a voice. 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 do we have some of the
programs cause I know that the CACs are funded out of TAf I know that the boys and girls clubs are funding out of t0 if
I've heard from them but what about the other two block grants? What
Speaker 63
59:00
programs are 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 are with the goal of helping lower income individuals to become self sufficient. They they
provide a a a variety of different services and it each agency may not serve or have the exact same services because it is communitybased based on community needs assessment but the community services block grant is impacted by the federal government shutdown because they're at this point there is no federal
Speaker 65
59:45
year 26 appropriation for that program or fund a funding award for that program. Communityer block grant
the 25 award in that block grant program it happens to carry over. it has a twoyear period of performance so some of the agencies still have funding and some don't but at DHS our administrative funding has reached its it's maximum we can no longer and that's
Speaker 63
1:00:12
what led to the furloughs of our community service block grant team at DHS OK. and what was the other block
Speaker 51
1:00:22
social services block grant we received
that it's a 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 inhouse 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 rehabilitationervices Arkansas sppinal cord Commission, and a and a few area agencies on aging get a little bit of additional money through that so it's a combination OK alright my last comment
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:01:21
madam chair is this is that you know I know that people want
to assign blame in I think this is just not the time to assign blame as I said you know democracy functions to where minority minority party does also have a voice and I think they'll want you're fighting for ourkansas and fighting for Americans he should have a voice and so I would caution us against that trying to chill a voice of the minority party. thank you. Senator Peyton you're recognized thank you madam
Chair. I'd just like to point out to my esteemed
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:02:03
colleague that having a voice does not guarantee that you get
your way. thank you thank you and are there any other questions right we're we're just gonna go to questions. I appreciate the updates the from everybody and like I said I think you know my 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 ourkansans in response to
what's happening at the federal level and and yeah you do res you have responsibility because you have a vote and if you 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 people need to vote and vote accordingly and 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 and in the state of Arkansas and with that said I appreciate y'all being here today. under other business I just want thank you so much I
appreciate it and and like I said I think it's important that we go to help arkansas . com . and also to for constituents to count check their county offices and to keep com communication and check the websites so that they make sure that they get their information in as quickly as possible if changes have been cha benefits have been changed at 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 we don't have any
control over that. So I I said I just want to make sure that that was very clear. on other business I just wanted to give everybody an update quickly on what is happening with the state of Arkansas submitting submitting the the rural health transformation programme. so the there has been there's been a process for the rural health transformationgrame. 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 Arkan s as . 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 little a lot differently than what we may have been used to under ArRpa orARSone. 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 12 6 pages long that 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 twostep 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, Do Kay Chandler, our surgeon general, Doctor Renee Mallory, I mean
our secretary of Department of Health forne Mallory, our secretary of DHsjanet mann and then I believe also Doctor Thompson is a part of that committee that 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 are 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
Senator Missy Irvin Chair
Unverified
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
Speaker 29
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
Speaker 35
Speaker 41
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