Mississippi’s welfare scandal was a frequent topic of conversation at a Tuesday legislative hearing on the Temporary Assistance For Needy Families program, but it wasn’t the main focus. Lawmakers were there to examine why so few Mississippi families living in extreme poverty are enrolled in the program and why so little TANF funding goes directly to those who are now that the program is no longer a slush fund for a corrupt agency head and his politically connected friends.
"The TANF money is the only money in the budget that we can put into the hands of poor people,” Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, said. … “There’s a massive bureaucracy, and RFP’s, and a ten-step process, and fiscal management, and all that bureaucratic crap, where you could just send people checks, and they can spend it and pay rent and buy food with it, and that, to me, is more efficient.”
During the 2022 budget year, the Mississippi Department of Human Services spent $4.1 million of its TANF block grant on cash assistance. That made up less than 7% of the $62.3 million in TANF funds the agency spent and represented one of the smallest percentages any state spent on direct assistance.
Only a few thousand Mississippians are receiving TANF’s cash benefit, and bureaucratic barriers throughout the TANF application process are partially to blame. Bob Anderson, Executive Director of MDHS, illustrated that point during his testimony by showing lawmakers a flowchart that showed the labyrinthine process for determining TANF eligibility.
“It's unbelievable what is required of an applicant, Anderson said.” … “‘Case denied’ is hanging in the balance every time something doesn't go as it should for that person who's applying.”
Lawmakers say paperwork requirements should be simplified and more assistance with the enrollment process should be available. Anderson said MDHS does not have the county-level staff needed to run the program more efficiently or someone with a deep understanding of the program.
“We have a sore need for TANF expertise in this agency,” Anderson said. “Like every state agency and every business, we have lost a wealth of institutional knowledge. We don’t have a TANF expert at MDHS. I’ll be the first to admit, we’re looking for a TANF expert.”
Anderson also agreed with lawmakers who said the monthly TANF cash benefit, a maximum of $260 for a family of three, is too low. The payment was increased by $90 in 2021 at Anderson’s request, and he said he’ll be asking lawmakers for a $60 increase next year if his boss, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, allows it.
Democratic leaders want to see that monthly payment increased by $200. Lawmakers argued during the hearing that MDHS can afford it by tapping into its stockpile of at least $146 million in unspent TANF funds or by reducing the $26 million allocated to subgrantees for things like workforce training programs. The Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services budget is also shored up each year with $29 million in TANF funds, and multiple lawmakers said that should be coming from the state’s general fund .
“It shouldn't be harder for them (TANF recipients) to get that than for some agency or some junior college to get $2.5 million as a subgrantee,” House Minority Leader, Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, told MPB. “That doesn't make any sense.”
After the four-hour hearing was over, Johnson acknowledged that getting any of his party’s policy recommendations for TANF through the Republican-dominated legislature during the 2025 session will be an uphill battle.
Even though Democratic attempts to pass some of those reforms in recent years haven’t been seriously considered by Republicans, Johnson thinks continuing to appeal to their Christian faith and desire to help Mississippians is the best path forward.
“We could jump on their back and beat the hell out of them, but that wouldn't work,” Johnson said.
Johnson also thinks TANF reform is one way to accomplish Republican leadership’s stated goal of raising Mississippi’s lowest in the nation labor force participation rate.
During the hearing, Tanja Murphy, a community advocate, told lawmakers that the cash and childcare assistance she received more than 30 years ago from the welfare program that preceded TANF changed her life. She credits that much-needed help with her ability to leave a dead-end job cleaning bathrooms, go to college and have a successful career.
Johnson says that too many lawmakers picture the "welfare queen" stereotype instead of people like Murphy when they think about TANF recipients, and that has to change for meaningful reforms to pass.
“The biggest problem we got with the legislature is they still think this is welfare,” Johnson said. “They still think they’re just writing checks to people and they’re putting it in their pockets and going to the boat.” … “It (TANF) only works if you're trying to get a job or you have a job or you're applying for a job or you’re being trained for a job."
