The Legislature’s Save Our Service Members Task Force heard testimony Monday on using part of Mississippi’s surplus of federal welfare funds to provide marriage counseling to military and first-responder families.
Dr. Jameson Taylor told lawmakers the state has roughly $150 million in unspent Temporary Assistance for Needy Families dollars that could legally support family stability programs.
Taylor, a director at the Mississippi-based conservative Christian nonprofit American Family Association, argued that high divorce rates among service families justify directing $10 million toward the effort.
“The divorce rate for first responders is estimated to be between 60 to 75 percent higher than the national average.”
Under federal law, TANF is a block grant program that states administer with wide discretion One of the four statutory purposes for using TANF funds is “encouraging the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.”
States like Oklahoma have used TANF funding for relationship-counseling programs, though some critics argue the impact on poverty and divorce has been limited
In Mississippi, the policy pitch is: by helping service-members and first-responder families strengthen their relationships, the state may reduce downstream costs linked to divorce, family instability and mental-health crises.
Lawmakers also heard testimony on Ibogaine, a psychedelic substance that some veterans seek abroad to treat post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.
Dr. Tom Recore, medical director at the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, pointed to clinical studies showing dramatic outcomes after a single supervised dose. He also lamented the difficulty of accessing ibogaine treatment because of its status as a Schedule I drug.
“Access to this is a major problem,” Recore said. “You're either gonna be a felon for trying to get access or you can go to Mexico and get the treatment you actually need for the things that we actually know are affecting you.”
Representative Sam Creekmore plans to reintroduce legislation next session that would partner Mississippi with Texas to run FDA-approved clinical trials using opioid settlement dollars to help fund the effort.
