ALC Hospital Subcommittee: Dec. 15, 2025

Representative Mary Bentley If everyone will get their seats, we’ll get this committee started. Good morning, everyone. We’ll go ahead and get this committee meeting started. I appreciate everybody coming. I know it’s a very busy time of year and lots going on, but this is really a very important topic, so I really appreciate everybody taking some time out this morning, a very important subject that we’ve got going on. So Senator English, would you like to say anything before we get started? 

All right, if we could have the folks here from Department of DHS come on up. Janet and Misty and Mary Franklin, if you guys want to come up and get started on our presentation. I think TANF is something we really need to understand, something that’s much more state directed than other programs that we partner with the federal government on. 

So we thought it was really important with our discussion to make sure we understand what is TANF, what in the world is that money used for, and currently where is it being used in our state. And if you guys will get your questions ready, I think there’ll be a lot of things that you want to ask some questions on. So ladies, if you’ll announce who you are real quick for us and get started. We appreciate you so much for being here first thing on a Monday morning to get us going. Thank you. 

Janet Mann Thank you. Good morning. Janet Mann, DHS Secretary. 

Misty Banks Misty Banks, DHS Deputy Secretary. 

Mary Franklin Mary Franklin, Director of the Division of County Operations for DHS. 

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you all. Members, there’s a presentation that’s up there. It’s in your book. Kate has done a phenomenal job. I want to thank Kate for doing such an outstanding job for all of us. There’s a lot of work going on in this committee and I don’t know what we would do without her. So, all right, ladies, we’ll let you take it.

Janet Mann Thank you. Mary is going to give us all the details. 

Mary Franklin All right. The first part of the presentation is about the– 

Representative Mary Bentley Mary, can you pull your microphone just a bit closer? 

Mary Franklin Is that better? 

Representative Mary Bentley Much better, thank you. 

TANF Presentation

Overview

Mary Franklin The first part of the presentation is about TANF, which is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. And it is a block grant that the state of Arkansas receives. This first slide is just to familiarize everyone or remind everyone of the four main purposes of TANF, which are to provide assistance to needy families, to ensure that children are cared for in their own homes or in the homes of relatives by providing financial assistance to families in need. Another purpose of TANF is to promote job preparation, work, and marriage, to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies and births, and to encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. 

In addition to those four main purposes of TANF, TANF can also be used to fund services that were authorized under prior law, before the TANF law, and if these services were approved in the 1995 or 96 aid to families with dependent children state plan. We were asked to provide a summary of how the TANF funds are used as far as the grants go. 

And the Department of Education Division of Elementary and Secondary Education receives part of the TANF block grant. They receive $7.5 million annually for the Arkansas Better Chance program. And the purpose of Arkansas Better Chance is to offer high quality early education services to children from birth to age five exhibiting developmental and socioeconomic risk factors. In addition, it provides educational opportunities to help children become school ready. 

And this grant is also part of our TANF maintenance of effort. And it is authorized and required in state law that the $7.5 million annually goes to Department of Ed from the TANF Block Grant. We also provide TANF funding to the Arkansas Division of Higher Education, the Career Pathways Initiative. This funding is also mandated in Arkansas state statute. There’s not a specific dollar amount listed. That dollar amount is negotiated annually, but the Career pathways initiative or CPI promotes job preparation, work and marriage for participants who have custody or legal responsibility for a child under age 21 and with an income of less than 250% of the federal poverty level. 

So the CPI program supports participants by increasing access to education, improving preparedness for high skills or high wage jobs by collaborating with employers to identify the workforce demands. And of course, the goal of CPI is to continue playing a critical role to help families with low income to improve their circumstances. All right, those two we wanted to specifically call out because statute does govern the funding for those two agencies. 

Then in addition to that, we also have some existing TANF subgrants. And one is to the Arkansas Baptist Children and Families Ministries. It supports TANF purposes 1 through 3. They provide residential assistance to protect children and empower mothers in Jonesboro, Little Rock, and Springdale who are at risk for homelessness. These mothers are taught stability while they’re pursuing education and viable employment. The children are provided after-school transportation, tutoring, and summer enrichment programming, and weekly counseling with licensed counselors. And their goal is to remain steadfast in their commitment to equip mothers with the essential resources to transition from inconsistency to empowerment. 

We also have a current subgrant with the Arkansas Alliance for Boys and Girls Club that helps to meet TANF purpose one. And Boys and Girls Club Alliance offers a variety of programs to support youth in achieving positive outcomes in their 3 priority areas, which are academic success, good character and citizenship and healthy lifestyles. The counties they serve are Ashley, Benton, Columbia, Crawford, Crittenden, Desha, Garland, Hot Spring, Jefferson, Logan, Miller, Phillips, Pope, Pulaski, Saline, Sebastian, and Union. 

We have a subgrant with the Arkansas Human Development Corporation. The AHDC is dedicated to offering crucial services in youth development to individuals ranging from age 14 to 21. The initiative targets those encountering barriers in the impoverished Delta region of Arkansas by forging partnerships with 14 municipalities, local communities, and faith-based entities. The AHDC aims to actively involve and empower the youth with the specific demographics. AHDC strives to acquaint participants with employment opportunities, entrepreneurial skills, financial literacy, and the prospect of gaining knowledge through structured programs while concurrently earning income. 

Representative Mary Bentley If we can take a break just right there, we do have one question right here. And also, I think that you guys in the past have sent us a list– and it should be your packet. I’m going to find out– of what we’re spending on each one of these subgrants. Do you have that with you today? 

So when you give this, to present, just at the beginning of each one, how much we’re spinning on each one of those subgrants. If you can go over the first three real quick, and then I’m going to recognize Representative Beaty after that. 

Mary Franklin Okay, so the Human Development Corps, they were awarded $752,828.30 for July through December of 25. The Arkansas Baptist Children and Families Ministry was $89,044.18, also for July through December 25. The Boys and Girls Club, $453,386.90.

Representative Mary Bentley That’s good. You’ve got the ones we’ve done so far. If you just want, at the beginning of each one, if you don’t mind sharing the amount. That would be helpful. I appreciate that. Representative Beaty, we’ll recognize you.

Shutdown impacts and spending extension

Representative Howard Beaty Thank you, Madam Chair. I was hoping that we would get a little bit of information and changes on the TANF. And correct me if I’m wrong, is that some of our community-based organizations had been notified that their funding, after the end of 25, they would no longer receive funding. 

And then with the government shutdown, I think there was a hold on the half that they were promised. So I guess my question is, for those community-based organizations that did receive six months of TANF funding or grant, is there any plan to extend that timeline beyond December 31 of 25 for them to expend those funds now that the government’s reopened? 

Janet Mann Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. So I think multiple pieces to your question. So we did notify the seven subgrantees in May that we were giving six month subgrants and that anything after December 31st was unknown at the time. That happened in May. During the government shutdown, we waited 30 days. We operated in good faith. We did ask all of our subgrants, including CPI and ABC, to halt duties. I believe it was approximately 10 to 14 days. We have given them notice to resume their activities as soon as the government voted to reopen to honor those subgrants. 

I also do need to note that we do not have the TANF award yet for federal fiscal year 26. I believe last week we reported in committee that we were still waiting on four grants to have notice of awards from the federal government. We did receive the Older American Act grant awards last week. Also, we received the Social Services Block Grant on Friday. So we have gotten two of the four that we’re waiting on. So we’re currently still waiting on TANF.

 We’re still waiting for Community Services Block Grant, CSBG, but we have notified them that they can resume services through 12/31. Now we are looking at, to answer your final question, we are now looking at what to do in January with the amount of resources that we have. We’ve not made any decisions on new grants. 

We are considering the grant award with an extension for time only if they haven’t spent all of what was subgranted, to allow them to spend it January through June. And we’ve got to make that decision, obviously, this week so that we can notify them but also bring the paperwork before y’all. 

Representative Howard Beaty And when would you bring that paperwork before us? 

Janet Mann I just got corrected that it doesn’t come before y’all. So I apologize. 

Misty Banks Sorry, yeah, to extend for time only is an administrative change. So we’re able to extend because you’ve already given them the blessing for the scope of service, as well as the ceiling amount on the grant. So we could just do that with a paperwork change. 

Representative Howard Beaty So I guess, to be more specific and pointed with my question, when will that administrative change and that communication of these organizations be delivered? 

Janet Mann It will be delivered this week. We have to make that decision. We’ve been waiting. We were hoping that grant award would come so that we could then also work on some payments and some other things. It hasn’t, so this week we have to notify them. 

Representative Howard Beaty Well, that was my concern. I know some of these folks, after they halted funding, they’re questioning about what they’re going to receive. But more importantly, they’re concerned about the funding that they have now that they didn’t spend that had the deadline of year end. And are they going to have any extra time to extend that? So I think the sooner we get that communication out, that would relieve some of these parties. 

Janet Mann Yes, sir. Our intent is to honor the full amount of the subgrant for the six months, even given when we asked them to halt some duties. But yes, sir, I understand. Sooner better than later. 

Representative Howard Beaty All right, I’m sorry about that. Thank you so much for answering the question. 

Representative Mary Bentley Senator Love. 

Senator Fred Love Thank you, Madam Chair. And I want to pick up where Representative Beaty left off. So you have provided a no-cost extension, if I’m understanding correctly, on funds that have not been expended in the grant?

Janet Mann No, sir. Actually, what we just testified to is that we have to make that decision this week. And Representative Beaty was asking us to do that as soon as possible. 

Senator Fred Love Okay, so, all right. So now I’m confused because you all halted, you all have halted spending for some programs that were funded by TANF. But then you just gave that you did, like, say for instance, AHDC, they’ve received $752,000. So it’s either you had money that was left in the grant, you didn’t have money left in grant? Like, kind of clarify that. Because it’s a little confusing on this side. Have you received your award or have you not? 

Janet Mann We’ve not received the new award for Federal Fiscal Year 26 for TANF, which started October 1. 

Senator Fred Love Okay, alright, so, alright. I got that. But did you have money left over in the previous grant? 

Janet Mann We did have some funds left over that we have spent to pay the first quarter of our state fiscal year, which would have been July through September. Then we did not ask anyone to stop services until November 7. We had gone, I think, 37-38 days into the government shutdown in good faith thinking that we would get that, they would vote, reopen, we would get our award. 

When the government did vote to reopen, I believe around the 14th or 15th of November, we then notified the subgrantees, all of them, on, I believe, that following Monday that they could resume activities in good faith. But we did tell them we did not have the notice of award, but since government had been reopened in good faith that we wanted them to resume their operations. 

Senator Fred Love Okay, so are you saying that we haven’t paid any of the expenditures for that time period? 

Mary Franklin We have paid through the first quarter of the state fiscal year. So we’ve paid for invoices through September 30th. We have not paid October forward. We did allow them to continue working in the month of October. We asked them to halt when we got to November, and we still had the federal government shutdown and with the uncertainty without having a TANF grant award for federal fiscal 26. 

We have since told them they could restart services around the 14th of November, and told them to go ahead and send invoices for October. And they can send invoices for November minus the time period we asked them to halt activities. And as soon as we get the 26 grant award, we will work on getting those payments out to those agencies for October and November to date. 

Senator Fred Love Okay, so then, for the CDCs, for the Child Protective– Child– those centers, have they been halted or have they resumed work? 

Mary Franklin All of the subgrants were halted for the first part of November. But we have since told them since the federal government reopened and we know that TANF is funded, we have told them to go ahead and resume activities. And when we get our 26 grant award, we will be able to catch up our payments to them. 

Misty Banks So can I make a slight clarification to that answer? So the subgrant award to this Children’s Advocacy Center is to the umbrella organization that gives technical assistance and guiding guidance to the individual 501c3’s that are out in various counties and communities. I don’t know what the direction from CAC has been to centers in communities. So this team we cannot tell you if they’ve paused operations, if they’ve gone to a shortened day, what services. I can’t answer that. Elizabeth Pulley would need to answer that for this body. 

Senator Fred Love So, Misty, then answer me this, were those grant awards cut or are we still funding at the same level as they were funding in 2025? 

Misty Banks They were reduced. They all, across the seven, they all received a pro rata reduction. And that was part of the formal notice that we gave them in the letter was that we could only fund for July through December 31, this portion of each of the discretionary subgrants. And that is because we are operating within the four corners of our notice of award, which is $56.5 million annually. We have expended basically all TANF reserves at this point. And so just like our other grant awards, we’re operating on our annual amount year over year. 

Senator Fred Love All right, so we were over annual amount because I guess we had some carryover from previous years?

Misty Banks Correct. Prior years, when the program was at DWS and particularly during covid, we got influx of one-time funds. And so we were able to honor a bunch of those community-based discretionary subgrants to get through that federal funding. But now we’re adjusting back to the base award amount on an annual basis. 

Senator Fred Love Okay, so you’re saying all subgrantees, not just–? 

Misty Banks So at this point, we’re only funding seven external subgrantees. We have the two that we discussed earlier. Those are in addition. And those are statutorily required that we fund those, plus we use that as our match, our MOE. So we have to put up some match to receive TANF. 

And we use the ABC program and part of CPI to do that. We also, within TANF, there’s a core grant function where we give direct benefits and cash to beneficiaries, right, so the T-TANF program. And then we pay salary to TANF case managers. 

We also do eligibility. So that costs us money to run and operate. We had to furlough those 26 or 30 employees as well, because we did not have sufficient reserves to continue paying them. So the subgrants is one portion of TANF, but it is not the entire breadth of the program. 

Representative Mary Bentley Senator Love, if it’s okay, can I put you back in the queue? I’m getting a long line of questions over here. 

Senator Fred Love Please do. Thank you. 

Representative Mary Bentley Senator Petty. 

Senator Jim Petty Thank you, Madam Chair. And I apologize. I guess it’s early and the Senate side’s a little slower than the House side. Just want to clarify, so the subgrants that you were talking about a minute ago, that was this total subgrant award. And of that subgrant award, there in some cases may be situations where they have not spent all of their subgrant. And for those, you’re going to give a time extension. Did I understand that correctly? 

Janet Mann Yes, sir. That is what we testified, that the decision has to be made this week. And they have to be notified for time only extensions which would allow them to expend any of the subgrant money that was awarded to them that has not been spent. 

Senator Jim Petty Okay. Is there a reason why we wouldn’t? I mean, that seems like that would be easy, up to the agency, whether or not they wanted to extend the time or not. Is there any reason why we wouldn’t want to do that? 

Janet Mann I don’t believe so. We were kind of hoping that the TANF award would have come last week so that we could have put it all together and done one action, with paying some bills and giving that extension. 

Senator Jim Petty Okay. And then going back to earlier testimony you were talking about– I think Representative Beaty talked about there was at least a conversation around past this initial six month period, whether or not there would be an additional six month extension as you kind of wean these maybe off of the TANF, these subgrants or something along those lines. That’s my word, but not yours. But anyway, there was a conversation around whether or not those subgrants would get another six months. Is that still under consideration as well, or is that off the table at this point? 

Janet Mann We are not there yet with funding. So the time only extension is time for current funds that have been given in the subgrant for July 1 through December 31st. If they don’t spend it, they can have six months to spend that. We told them in May in the letter when we were doing the grant and having to reduce it that there was unknown if there would be new funds available for January through June. At this stage, I don’t have my grant award. It’s very hard for me to consider subgranting any new money if I don’t have the current grant award 

Senator Jim Petty I understand that. But that is not off the table? You just don’t know yet? 

Janet Mann I mean, from looking at some of our projections and going forward, it’s very slim that there will be new money. 

Senator Jim Petty And the new money– whereas the six-month extension, was it because of old money? I think Senator Love was talking about reserves that were left over. If everything comes in flat, there’s no new money, does that mean the Child Advocacy Centers and these subgrantees would not get any? Or because they were included in these previous subgrants, there would be money available for consideration?

Not saying you have to commit to that, but for consideration. I’m not understanding the nature behind the funding of these subgrant and the funds that were used to fund these six month subgrants. 

Janet Mann I think with the subgrants, they are discretionary. If we have the funding, and since we are now living within the four corners of $56.5 million a year and we no longer have reserves because they’ve been spent, there’s not any new funding to subgrant when you look at the obligations that we are spending TANF on. That is the struggle that we’re trying to forecast out. 

That’s why we told them in May, we are spending more and more of our reserves. I mean, I don’t even think we have many reserves left. And so we chose to reduce all of the subgrants by the same percentage point to give them six months of a reduced amount. But we also put in that letter in May that it was unknown if anything would be granted in funds in January. 

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you, and before I move on to the next person, so what are you guys, if anything, are you hearing anything on the federal level? Are they keeping you in the dark pretty much? I’m just kind of curious if you’re hearing anything. So I hate to commit. But just if you are hearing anything on that level. 

Janet Mann So we did hear last week, at the beginning of the week, that some of the federal funding notice of awards would be coming last week. We didn’t know which ones they were. As reported earlier, Older Americans Act, SSBG and CSBG in TANF were outstanding for us. We did receive two of those four categories last week. We received OAA, or Older American Act, I believe on Tuesday or Wednesday. 

And then on Friday, we got notice of award for the Social Services Block Grant or SSBG. We have checked this morning. We don’t have anything on the CSBG for Community Services Block grant or for TANF. So we are hoping that maybe by the– daily, we’re trying to check on those awards. 

Representative Mary Bentley All right. Thank you so much. Representative Beaty. 

Representative Howard Beaty I guess there’s a time delay on our. Apologize for that, Madam Chair, members of committee. Just kind of to follow back up, can we get a list of the providers that were notified? Saying, when you were notified about the funding past December, the understanding a lot of these providers are telling me is that they were told there would be no funding after the end of year 2025. 

So could we get a list of those providers that received notice that they would not be receiving funding going forward? Not that it was contingent upon receipt of money, but that were notified there will be no more money. I think that would be helpful for members to look at and see which affected entities are in their districts. And then my question, have y’all looked at which programs you’re going to fund for 26 and 27? 

I’m not asking about how much or at what level, but have you had decisions that the department’s made that, we’re not going to fund this subset of organizations going forward? And are you– I think I heard you say that there would be no new contracts. So not looking at new providers, but only maybe looking at the ones that were already out there and that had outstanding contracts. I know that’s a lot.

Janet Mann Yes, sir, we will get you a list. It is the seven subgrantees are the only subgrantees currently. We will get to you a list of those. We’ve not considered any new subgrantee at all. 

Misty Banks I think at this point, we’ve not had any conversations about funding external subgrants. So whether they’re an existing provider or a new obligation, at this point, it’s premature because we’ve not even received our current grant award. We do know that our grant award will be the 56.5 million. And we do know that with current operational cost, as well as other obligations to ABC and CPI, it will be very difficult for us to continue funding external subgrants. 

Representative Mary Bentley Okay, Representative Allen. 

Representative Fred Allen Thank you, madam chair. Thank you all for being here. Appreciate the work that you all are doing. Yeah, I’m going to follow up on the question. Could you tell me how much money do you all have from the previous grant leftover from the previous funds?

Janet Mann No, sir, we don’t have the exact balance as of this morning. We will get it for you. We have some projections but, I mean, they change every week. 

Representative Fred Allen But you all did have money left? 

Misty Banks So looking at the spreadsheet I have with me today, which is a few weeks old, we headed into the new fiscal federal year with around $8 million total. So that was to pay cash benefits. That was to pay all of the staff coded, as well as to honor obligations that we had ongoing. And I know that we have paid out several of those obligations because we’ve been paying as much as we’ve had liquidity to do so. And so I can get you our updated amount that we have in our current account for today. 

Representative Fred Allen But there is money left? 

Misty Banks Yes, it’s just insufficient to continue paying all of our obligations without the new award. 

Representative Fred Allen Okay, thank you.

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you. Representative Springer. 

Representative Joy Springer Good morning. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate receiving this document here, but I wanted to ask about. And I like to see numbers. Do you all have separate budgets that you’ve made up for each one of these entities that you’re providing these funds to? 

Like, for instance, if you go through the ones that are receiving the discretionary grants, like ABC, Children and Family Ministries, the Arkansas Alliance for Boys and Girls Club, do you have separate budgets within your department for each one of those? 

Misty Banks Yes, ma’am. 

Representative Joy Springer Okay. And so you budget a certain amount and then you have the amounts that you’ve allocated to be spent given to those? Is that correct? 

Misty Banks That is correct. 

Representative Joy Springer Okay, so that’s something then that you can pull together and share with us then. I guess that’s what I’m getting at.

Misty Banks Yes, it is part of the subgrant agreement. And we’ll be happy to reach out to our Office of Procurement and we can provide those. 

Representative Joy Springer Okay, I think that would be helpful if we had that to see as well. 

Misty Banks Great, thank you. 

Representative Joy Springer Thank you. 

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you, Representative Springer. Senator Irvin. 

Senator Missy Irvin Thank you. You said two are statutorily required. Which ones were those again? 

Misty Banks That is to ABC and to CPI. So ABC. 

Senator Missy Irvin That’s a transfer then to Department of Ed? 

Misty Banks Yes, that’s correct. That is 7.5 million automatically. So we pay them in four quarterly installments. And then for CPI, which is part of higher education career pathways initiative, we are statutorily obligated to provide TANF funding to that program. 

And we negotiate with them annually about how much that budget will be based on what services they’re giving. And since we have taken on the TANF grant, we’ve actually reduced that number over the last couple of years that we’ve been in charge of that. 

Senator Missy Irvin But none of the other, like the discretionaries are, those are not statutory?

Misty Banks That is correct. And those fluctuate on a state by state basis. So each state uses their TANF block grant in a different way. And some states elect to use these for external subgrants. But I think mostly TANF funding goes to support child welfare and some other initiatives around the four tenants of TANF. 

Senator Missy Irvin Okay. And did y’all give us this list? 

Misty Banks Yes, so this was responsive to a prior BLR request. So we’ve been asked over the last few times we’ve discussed TANF with the legislature to give all of the vendor expenses from ’19 to 2025. And so this is just an enumeration of that list. And we had previously provided this. 

Senator Missy Irvin Alright. And then so as this list continues or changes, who specifically makes the decisions? So this is a vendor list. So this is out. So you have included the discretionary grant funding in here, but then the additional fund expenses are from what? Administrative? 

Mary Franklin To provide services for our T and Work Pays recipients, reimbursement services or supportive services in order for them to do the work activities required in their plans. So you’ll see a variety of different things that could also be related to serving our T or Work Pays clients. 

Senator Missy Irvin Okay, like a restaurant’s on here. So I’m just trying to understand that. 

Misty Banks What year are you looking at? I’m so sorry. 

Senator Missy Irvin 2022. 

Misty Banks We would need to reach out to DWS to verify. 

Senator Missy Irvin Wood Grill Buffet. I’m just trying to understand. 

Misty Banks So we would need to reach back out to DWS because they were the administrative body at that time.

Senator Missy Irvin OK, when did you all become the administrative body again? 2023?

Janet Mann July 1 of 2023, the program transferred to DHS. 

Senator Missy Irvin Okay, well, it’s listed also on 2023. I’m just trying to understand some of these expenditures of these vendors and trying to understand what this is for and then who makes those decisions. 

Janet Mann  Let us get with DWS about some of the older expenditures. We would not know specifics. And then from July 1 of 23 through current, it would be DHS. 

Senator Missy Irvin Okay. And but it would be retroactive then. Probably 2023 would have been paid for services in 2022 or 2023? 

Janet Mann It could have. Well, since it transferred in the middle of calendar year 23, which is how this is enumerated–

Senator Missy Irvin I got you. 

Janet Mann It could be– it could have crossed over. 

Senator Missy Irvin Okay, and then the last thing that I just wanted to say, too, though, is that federally, if we don’t– let’s just say the federal government gives zero money for TANF. Then we would have to change the statute for those two programs?

Misty Banks I think when reading the statute, perhaps there’s a clause in there that says, if we don’t receive any–. 

Senator Missy Irvin If funding is available? 

Misty Banks Yes, if funding is available. 

Senator Missy Irvin Okay. Thank you. 

Representative Mary Bentley Senator Love.

Senator Fred Love Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you all for the expenditure sheet. So I continue to hear you all state that you’re trying to operate within the $56.5 million. And so I think Representative Allen was trying to get to this. But how much was, do you all not have the budget for 2025? Since 2026 is going to be $56.5 million, what was the budget for 20– your budget for 2025. 

Then for 2024. Because what I’m looking at is these expenses, a total for just, say, 2021 was 30.6 million. A total for 2022 was 33.6 million. A total from 2023 was 55.9 million. A total for 2024 was 47 million. And so we now see that we’re at 2025, that’s 48.7 million. And so you are saying that we’re cutting back people and we have 56.5 million. I’m not saying that– I mean, I understand that you have administration. But I’m just trying to figure this one out. We’re cutting back. What’s the administration? 

It seems like we have included our match or what we’re supposed to have with the 7.5 million in the CPI, which we don’t have a number for. But I’m just trying to, if this is the overall expenditure list, right now in 2025, we’re at 48.7 million. So if you all could kind of guide me through this, then I can better understand. 

Prior year reserve funds

Mary Franklin So in those prior years, there were more TANF reserves. There were other TANF federal year block grant money left, which enabled workforce services before TANF program came to DHS to do several subgrants outside of the funding that DHS received during that time for operating TANF, the Transitional Employment Assistance Program, the Work Pays Program, the funding for our child welfare and youth services activities. 

There was more money. There was money on the table at that point. But over those years, that money has decreased. That’s why you see that the number spent on the TANF block grant decreased. And you’re looking at a number, 48 million for 25, and the block grant for 25 is only 56.5. And that’s all we are expecting going forward. You know, that 48.5 shows the majority of the federal year block grant being spent. 

Senator Fred Love Okay. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m just trying to better understand. So are we trying to, I guess, incur a little cushion so that if something happens, then we have money to operate? I mean, but I guess that’s what I’m trying to figure this entire thing out. Because if we’re saying we’re cutting back on programs, right, and we had excess, are we trying to kind of accumulate some excess? I mean, I’m not trying to judge you, whether it’s right or wrong because I don’t operate. I’m just trying to better understand. 

Misty Banks Thank you for your question. I understand what you’re asking. So these expenses were expenses only paid through commitment item four, which is grants and aid, or through professional fees and services and inter-agency transfers. These expenses do not represent direct salary, fringe, benefits paid to direct clients out in the field. 

So these numbers are in addition to other types of maintenance and operation spending. So you would add this money from these 3 types of expenses into other expenses that we paid. I do have available and I may have shared that previously with BLR what our annual spending on TANF has been. So like in in one year– 

Senator Fred Love So in 2025. Let’s just talk 2025. 

Misty Banks So I don’t know the exact 2025 number. But for example– I just don’t have that with me today– but for example, we spent in one annual year $77 million total in TANF. So we had both the base plus the reserve. In another year, we spent almost 90 million because we were honoring subgrants that were sunsetting and that we had obligations on. So I’ll be happy to send those numbers and those years to this body. 

Senator Fred Love So has our base always been 56.5 million? 

Misty Banks Yes, sir. 

Senator Fred Love Okay, so that’s been our base. We’ve been spending over our base. 

Misty Banks Correct. 

Senator Fred Love And I hear what you’re saying. So with the discretionary, did you state that all discretionary has been cut the same? 

Misty Banks That’s correct. So in this past subgrant agreement time period from July 1 through December 31, there was a pro rata percentage that was applied to all the remaining external subgrantees. So we cut them each equally based on their annual amount the prior SFY. 

Senator Fred Love If we could get the numbers for the 2025, I would just like to see the numbers for 2024, 2025, and then. 

Misty Banks Absolutely. And we have those readily available. I’m sorry I don’t have those today. In addition, I think there is one other thing I’d bring forward, which is the state of Arkansas was receiving some contingency TANF money each year. That is money that comes from other states not expending their full allocation and then being redistributed to states based on application. 

But you need to meet some very strict unemployment numbers and other data. We had been getting that funding when the program was not with DHS. But upon looking at the federal requirements, we stated that we do not qualify for that funding anymore. 

So that was a loss of funding annually anywhere between $7.5 million and $5.6 million. It just depends on how much extra from other states was available. But again we do NOT meet the federal criteria to get that application. 

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Love. Representative Crawford. 

Representative Cindy Crawford Thank you, Madam Chair. Hello ladies. It sounds like to me that you keep saying the four corners of the state. That is something new that we’re doing with the 56.5. Is that what I’m hearing? 

Misty Banks So at DHS, we maintain our grants on an annual basis. So we only do state fiscal year obligations that go up to our notice of award amount. We have been spending TANF previously beyond that amount because there was significant commitments, as well as significant reserves. We are now at a state with this grant that we are no longer able to make commitments to either our budgets inside or to external budgets that exceeds $56.5 million annually. 

Representative Cindy Crawford OK, so the four corners of the state is not new. It’s what we’ve been doing anyway. 

Misty Banks That’s how we practice grant management at our agency. 

Representative Cindy Crawford OK, all right. Another question, the new funding for the Older Americans Act, will that help the senior centers across Arkansas? 

Janet Mann Yes, ma’am. I believe so. That was one of the areas that we had to pause activities for a certain time period with certain sections within the senior centers, not all of the senior centers. But we can get you the specifics. 

Representative Cindy Crawford Will that be discretionary funds? Or no, it’s specific? 

Janet Mann It’s ongoing operations, so it’s not discretionary. It’s not new money. It’s what had been budgeted. We have just now received it. 

Representative Cindy Crawford Very good. And Restore Hope, when they pull money, they pull it straight from the feds. It doesn’t come through the state. Is that correct? 

Janet Mann No ma’am, that is not correct. They have a subgrant, a TANF subgrant. 

Representative Cindy Crawford So they, too, will be getting cut. Didn’t know that, okay. How were the CACs funded before Covid? I mean, everybody got all that extra money. And so everybody is now screaming. We realize that. So do you happen to know how they were funded before that extra money hit? 

Misty Banks Again, we inherited these programs from DWS. Based on documents we’ve received, is that the CAC umbrella organization began receiving TANF funding in 2019. And then they’ve received allocations since then. I am not privy to how the individual child protection centers out in communities have been funded. 

I know it’s been a mix between VOCA funds, which I understand have also been cut. We do not administer or receive VOCA Funds. They also received some funding through the Commission on Rape, Domestic Violence, and Child Abuse that’s housed at UAMS. Again, we don’t receive those funds and we don’t distribute those funds. 

And then it’s my understanding that they are all 501c3s, so they do individual community fundraising and get other grants and services. But again, I can’t speak to that. We don’t operate those organizations. 

Representative Cindy Crawford Okay, thank you. Thank you madam chair. 

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you. Representative Beck.

Representative Rick Beck Thank you, Madam Chair. I’ve almost wore out my button, clicking in and clicking back out and clicking then back in to ask questions. So great questions from the rest of the legislators here. And I’m trying to understand a little bit. It looks like you’ve done quite a bit of funding out of reserves, which would indicate that there’s a lot of reserves. Now maybe I’m looking at reserves the wrong way. 

But my  question would be, I’m just going to ask a few questions. What mandated the reserves being built. I mean, what caused these reserves, just first of all to accumulate? Another thing, then, the other thing is, I would like to know where these reserves were, not necessarily back– like, who is in charge of these reserves? 

There’s this pot of money somewhere. Who is it? Is it the agencies that you’re, do they have reserves down in them? Or is it DHS and that type of thing? And then the last thing is, it’s just a request. If these reserves are there, is there any way we can see a history of these reserves, where they were, and who was in charge of them, the last three years or something, or maybe the last four years? So we can kind of get an idea of what happened here. Because I mean, it does appear that there were some very large reserves somewhere. Maybe that’s needed for some reason. 

But anyway, answer those two questions. And if it is possible to get us the information as to the amount of the reserves, who was in charge of those reserves, whether they were transferred to you guys at some point or something of that nature, I would certainly appreciate it.

Misty Banks So it’s my understanding that these reserves had built up over time with the prior administration at DWS. Mary Franklin can certainly explain more about that. But as T and TANF eligible recipients went down, there were less opportunities to spend those funds directly with clients. So it is my understanding that during the administration, there was a time period where they weren’t distributing a lot of funds to outside agencies. 

I do think some of the funding went to support the WIOA boards. Some of the funds went to support other work initiatives. But I do not think they were doing discretionary subgrants to not-for-profits in communities. 

Then, and I only know this because DHS got approached as a recipient for some subgrant money, the federal government came in and had a conversation with the state of Arkansas and said, if the state of Arkansas cannot use the 56.5 million in TANF, we would be happy to give you a permanent reduction and then that way we could give this funding to other states. Or you can expedite spending on reserves. 

So then there was a concerted effort to find organizations that met the four tenants of TANF and to get that funding out to organizations. That is one of the ways that our Division of Youth Services got some funding for diversion, right, and also for skills training for our kids who were not in treatment settings. So I just know that because we got approached, could you all utilize some funding? Of course we said, yes, we would be happy to use that to help our kids who are in juvenile justice. 

So from there, there was a concerted effort to spin down the reserves. And there were lots of grants and awards made. And then they were expended. Then the program came to DHS and we have spent the last couple of years making sure that we could honor our commitments faithfully while still paying our employees and paying clients who were entitled to these services. 

And at this point, we just don’t have a reserve. We would like to have one quarter in reserves in case there is a long federal shutdown. That would be approximately $14 million. As I said, sometime in September, we only had about 8 million. And I know that number now is down to about 4 to 5 million. 

But again, I will get you that exact number as of today. But that’s sort of the history and I will try. We have put together some of the documentation that you’re asking for and we’ll be happy to share that with you all. 

Representative Rick Beck Just a quick follow-up. So the documentation that you’re going to share with us is going to say where the reserves were, in other words who was in charge of the reserve? 

Misty Banks DWS, yes. That’s correct. 

Representative Rick Beck And those balances. And I don’t need a whole lot of detail here but just like a year-by-year basis how those accumulated and then how the spin-down went. Because obviously, as you said, the federal government came in and said, Use it or lose it. 

So at some point, they actually reached out to DHS and said, you need some money for something. And so I would like to just see how that went up and back down and where it went. They were told to either utilize it or we weren’t going to get funded at the $56 million level. 

Misty Banks We’ll certainly work with the other agency to flesh out some of that as well. We do have some documentation around closure of the federal grants and other information. 

Representative Rick Beck Just a brief comment. One of the most frustrating things is as a legislator is when you’re funding something. And there’s this pot of money out there somewhere that’s actually funding the same thing. And you get a feel that the funding level that you’re at, everything’s adequate. 

Then all of a sudden, people come and they need additional funding. Well, it’s because they’ve been spending down reserves that were there or whatever. And we don’t necessarily, either we’re not diligent enough to drill down to find out that there’s actually money coming from another source. 

Again, I think what we’re doing is fine. The things that we’re utilizing it on is fine. But it’s frustrating to know that, at some point, funding’s not enough. And it’s because we were spending down reserves. And it gives us a false sense of when we’re setting a budget, how to set the budget to make sure that we fund everything appropriately. So that’s the reason for me asking for this reserve, how it got built up and where it’s at now. Thank you. 

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you, Representative. Senator Dismang. 

Accountability in spending

Senator Jonathan Dismang Thank you, madam chair. So just to make sure, because I’m looking at this list. And I do appreciate it being provided because there’s a lot that I don’t understand. I just want to confirm, what I’m hearing is, we’re kind of headed in a new direction. I’m hoping there are some formulas, equations, whatever. We measure outcomes for the dollars that we’re spending. 

When you have a whole bunch of money, and we had excess, you’re less likely to pay as much attention. And I think that’s what we find ourselves falling into. And then we started funding things. And now those same that weren’t funded before want the same amount. And we’ve got to start asking for justification, in particular with these nonprofits or whoever may be involved. 

Because if I looked at this list, I mean, I could choose to be offended, from Searcy, Arkansas, because Siloam Springs is getting a one-off or whatever. And I have no idea how that came about. It’s nothing against Siloam  Springs. It’s just, how did that work out? And how was that fair to the rest of the state? So I do very, very much appreciate this renewed look at what’s happening. 

Because without it, I’m not sure that we are accomplishing much in a goal besides getting some money out the door. It may be each one of these entities are doing well and above and beyond. But I hope for sure that we’re going to measure some outcomes to ensure that that’s the case. 

Because like I said, a lot of this is– I mean, some of this, I don’t think I want to know where the money was going and how it was being utilized, just by doing some quick Google searches. But anyway, so that is the plan y’all are going to have? Number one, there’s not as much money. We ought to control how we’re spending it. And whatever we do spend, we’re going to get the biggest bang for the buck. 

Janet Mann Yes, sir. So thank you for the question. So outcomes have become a very large topic of conversation. And outcomes can vary from subgrantee to subgrantee. They’re not just Outcome X for all of them because they’re serving different populations or serving different entities and doing it in different ways. 

One area that we have been very conscious of with our subgrantees and still having those conversations is we’re wanting to see services, not salaries and fringe. Because if something occurs where we do have to make a reduction, salaries and fringes is very hard to recover from when you need to go fundraise or do something for services. So we are taking a new look at it. We are trying to add some additional outcomes and we are having those conversations with the subgrantees. 

Senator Jonathan Dismang My other piece would be, during Covid and those dollars coming in the state, we essentially required a form to be signed that they knew that those dollars had the potential to be one-time money, short-lived, and to not anticipate being able to utilize those in the fund. 

So, in essence, don’t increase your overhead based on this. To your point, do what you can for some short-term outcome or turn it into a long-term outcome. I hope that we move– I think those things were signed with some of these entities that are talking about the shock of not receiving continuing funding. 

If that doesn’t exist, make sure that everyone that receives a dollar understands that that dollar may not be there next year because of reorganization of priorities, a new administration, whatever it may be. It is possible that they will not be there. 

Janet Mann I’m not familiar with the form from Covid. But we do put funding availability clauses in all of our agreements with contracts and subgrants. But we will go back and look at it again for additional.

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you, Senator. Representative Allen. 

Representative Fred Allen Thank you, madam chair. I just happened to look down this list and I saw a company called Allen Transportation. Let the record reflect that’s not my company. 

Representative Mary Bentley Okay, Representative Beaty. 

Representative Howard Beaty Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to make certain that the way I interpret the data that you provided on the sheet of vendors, these are the actual amount of monies that have been expended and sent to these entities. 

Misty Banks Yes, sir. This is taken from an ASIS report. 

Representative Howard Beaty So the other half of this that I think would be helpful is the amount of the initial award for each of these entities to show what they’re expecting to receive. Because just a quick scan, you got about $7.7 million left if we’re operating with the 56.5 you gave us. 

Misty Banks So a couple of points about that. So for years these were not at DHS,.we don’t have access to those. And not all of these are on a subgrant agreement. Lots of these were paid through purchase orders, reimbursements, other methods of payment. 

However, we do know through ASIS that these were tied to TANF expenses. In addition, this money is on top of operating costs. So when you combine, let’s just say, like the total line from 2019, while that was at DWS, I’m sure if you combine that with their operating expenses, it would be way in excess of the 56.5 million. 

Representative Howard Beaty I hate that Senator Dismang left the room because I think he would have been kind of keyed in on, Restate what you said right at the beginning of that about some of these, there are no contracts. And you don’t have that information or can’t find it. 

Misty Banks So prior to the grant being administered. 

Representative Howard Beaty I understand that. I’m not laying blame on you guys for that. 

Misty Banks Yes, so some of these went, for instance, like inter-agency transfers. So like payments to WIOA boards, for instance, that was ongoing. I don’t know that there’s an agreement or contract for that. Some of these amounts that are lower amounts, for instance, were on purchase orders. 

So one of the first things we did when we took over agreements is we got a spreadsheet and we entered into formal subgrant agreements with all of our ongoing vendors to just make sure that all of our documentation was in good order. 

Representative Howard Beaty Well, how about providing us a list of the ones you don’t have information on. If there’s no agreement there, I think that might be enlightening. There are several on here that are larger awards that started after 2023. So I still think it would be helpful to have what was the award amount for those that you do know the dollar amount on. 

Misty Banks Yes, sir. And any of those that have happened since DHS, we will be happy to provide all the documentation available. 

Representative Howard Beaty Because I think Senator Dismang’s question and the line of question he was going down is on outcomes. I think that’s what we want out of this. We want to see that these programs are impactful and are changing lives and providing the intended use of these funds to improve quality of life. I do see a couple on here that the payment to DHS, that’s the salaries and covering employees, that 1.7 million. Yes, on the second to last page at the top. Is that just your operating cost for–

Misty Banks This would be a grant most likely either to our Division of Youth Services or our Division of Children and Family Services. 

Representative Howard Beaty  I think I want some information on each of these that are going to a state entity or a state organization as to what the state’s doing with that money and how it’s being expended by the state. Because that’s one thing we do have that we hold accountable and we can weigh in on that. Just like Leg Audit. 

I see Arkansas Legislative Audit $94,400. I don’t see that looking back to 2019. So I don’t know what that was for? Is there a certain audit that was required on this or is it an administrative function that was passed on to Leg Audit? What that payment was for. 

Misty Banks That’s likely our payment to Legislative Audit for auditing the program. And that may be that when we pulled it, when we keyed it into ACES, we put it in professional fees and services. So when we did the ASIS extract, it came back in that manner. But in prior years, I don’t know how the other state agency coded that payment to Legislative Audit. But that would be a normal ongoing payment. I can also ask Legislative Audit if they were testing the TANF program when it was at DWS as well. 

Representative Howard Beaty And then I guess my last question, because then that causes me pause too, just as far as the validity of the information that we have here if you just pulled something in from the system. Can you pull in and get a total paid like on each year or just show 2019 by entity to show the total and the change over the timeframe? I think that would be helpful too. I know it may be– I’m just asking for the information in a different format. And if you can’t do that, just send me this information in an Excel spreadsheet and I can do it myself. 

Misty Banks We’ll work on that. 

Representative Howard Beaty Because I just kind of want to see the trend on some of these because some of them new are popping up on here like Pulaski County at almost $425,000. So it’s just things that jump out at me, not picking on Pulaski County. Not picking on Leg Audit. Just things that cause me pause and I want to see where and how that money is being utilized. 

Janet Mann We’ll work on it. I think what you’re asking is by entity, time over time, year of a year. 

Representative Howard Beaty Right. So that way, I think if you give me the total award that you have and then we can see how this has progressed. Because what I heard earlier is you were told, if y’all can’t spend this money in Arkansas, then we’re going to reduce your award. And at that point, it’s like we need to get rid of our reserves and then operate within the 56.5 million that we’re being given and make certain that we utilize that instead of trying to hold back a quarter’s worth of reserve or  6 months of reserve in there. 

You need to expend this money and employ it in the state like the program was intended. And again, not laying blame on you guys or on DWS, but the program is intended for these funds to be deployed throughout the state. And sitting in a bank account over there as a slush fund is not deploying those funds in the manner in which they were intended. With that I’ll get out of the queue and let some of my colleagues speak. And thank y’all for answering the questions.

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you, Representative Beaty. Senator Irvin. 

Senator Missy Irvin Yeah. Just follow up. Again, these are federal funds. And I just think we’ve got to make sure that we understand that. At any point, of the subgrantees, do we ask them how they spend this money? Because I’m looking at a lot of this and I’m thinking, That’s a lot of money that they’re receiving. I

 want to make sure that they’re spending it wisely, correctly, and so we’re real clear about that. That’s one of my questions. So do we ever look at how Restore Hope Initiative is spending the $6.2 million that they received in 2025? Thank you very much. 

Mary Franklin Yes, we do. They have a subgrant agreement, so they should be spending within the terms of that agreement. When we receive invoices, we request follow-up documentation. We give them some time, but we request follow-up documentations. And then we also do monitoring at least once a year where we may go even and look deeper. We are doing that. 

Senator Missy Irvin OK, so if you’ll just look at it with me, I just want to make sure I’m clarified. 2025. Let’s look at 2025 on this list of what was paid out of expenses on 2025. You have 7 are the subcontract, discretionary subgrant people. Alliance of Boys and Girls Club, Arkansas Baptist Children’s, Arkansas Human Development Corp, Children Advocacy Centers of Arkansas, Our House, Pulaski County, Restore Hope. And then on that last page, Career Pathways Initiative and DOE, those are by statute. So the rest of those– let’s just pick Conway County Community Service Incorporated. How is that funded? 

Misty Banks So that was a subgrant during that time period. And that’s one of the ones that we have subsequently sunsetted. So we did not renew it for this new state fiscal year. 

Senator Missy Irvin Okay, so we’ve limited it to– we’ve got 7 main entities. But then the rest of the expenditures on here were just– they were also discretionary grants?

Misty Banks Some of them. But like for instance, if you look at this line that says, Smacky’s Catering Services for $172,000, for instance. That is part of the allocation that was given to Division of Youth Services. And they utilize that at our CSTEP facility to feed juveniles who were participating in that diversion program. So rather than giving the money directly, we paid a bill for them. And that came out of their allocation portion. 

Senator Missy Irvin Got you. Okay. So I think what may just be helpful is just being able to identify each of these. I’m not sure if ASIS has the ability to do that. But like that makes sense when you start looking at, yes, Some of these were discretionary that pop up during the year based on what our needs are basically. Is that right? 

Misty Banks Well, Youth Services has a set allocation. And they were spending out of that set allocation with this vendor, but yes. 

Senator Missy Irvin And then like Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas. 

Misty Banks They had an ongoing subgrant agreement. And we finalized that and then we paid it out and sunset them. And so they were not renewed for this state fiscal year. 

Senator Missy Irvin Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. 

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you, Senator Irvin. And colleagues, I’m going to let you know today we do have a hard stop at 11:35. But if you’ve got a presentation, we’d love to bring you back if it’s okay next month to finish up. We’re not going to stop right now. We’ll stop at 11:35. But there’s a lot that you’ve prepared for today we haven’t been able to go over. So if it is okay, we’ll bring you guys back next month to finish up. We’ll have some more answers to some of the questions everybody’s presented today, if that’s okay. All right. Senator Petty. 

Senator Jim Petty Thank you, Madam Chair. Looks like I’m the last one, so I’ll be brief. Thank you, ladies. I know there’s a lot of questions. It’s been very helpful for me. And so thank you for being patient and answering these. I think I understand the numbers. But I want to, on the go-forward basis, much like Senator Dismang and Representative Beaty mentioned, based on outcomes. 

I love hearing that, but can you help me understand with the current– forget about the reserve. Forget about the spending 90 million out of a 56 million. I think I understand all that now. But going forward $56.5 million. If the math is right, roughly 7.5 million is spent statutorily. And then looking at this schedule that we had roughly 8.7 or 9 million. 

So that leaves about 40 million dollars. And I know there’s some administrative cost in there for salaries at DHS. What else is that $40 million spent on? Roughly $40 million. What are we doing with TANF? With some of these block grants and subgrants going away, what are we doing? 

Because that may be something where we want to, as the legislative body, help you prioritize. Just because it’s up at child advocacy centers or whatever their programs are, statutorily or otherwise. So If you could, help me there. 

Mary Franklin So in addition to those two for CPI and ABC that are statutorily required, we also– and CPI is 9.9. So 7.5. And CPI was 9.9 for this year. We also support the activities and the payments due our clients in the transitional employment assistance program. That is the state’s cash assistance work program associated with TANF. 

And the Work Pays program, which is also for clients who were in the team program, but who ended their team because they went to work. So Work Pays is a secondary program to help them just get those next steps in job stability and help them increase their earnings so they get additional support through their time and Work Pays. 

There’s the salaries for staff. There are system costs related to maintaining the systems where these programs are determined eligibility and the case management. Other parts of the money fund child welfare activities in DHS and activities in the Division of Youth Services, and then also supportive expenses across the department for finance, for legal, for procurement, for leadership. All the associated costs are what make up the rest of that 40, approximately 40 million. 

Senator Jim Petty Follow-up. Sorry about that. So basically the tour that we did, the presentation that we had last week or the week before last, there at your workforce, those are the programs that you’re talking about that are being paid or some of them are being funded out of that. And then the balance, just a ballpark, just curious on all the administrative in-house. Don’t have to give it to me today if you don’t know it. But just just ballpark of the 56 million, how much of it is administrative cost?

Misty Banks So in 2025, our administrative costs were right around $12 million. But director Franklin also spoke about funds to Division of Children and Family Services. So that support in2025 was about $25 million. So went to the activities at the hotline, went to investigations, went to fund frontline child welfare workers. 

We also have an allocation that goes to our Division of Youth Services as we spoke on earlier. I think that was around $7 million last year. And then our systems cost for 2025 was right around $2 million, for instance. And then I’m just looking here, and I don’t have the salary and fringe number in front of me. But those would be additional expenses as well.

Senator Jim Petty And what you gave me just roughly close to the 40 million that we were talking about. Okay, thank you. 

Representative Mary Bentley All right, thank you all so much. If we could just, I think we had two that we didn’t do, Our House and Pulaski. Those last few, if we could get those done. And then we’ll start with SNAP next month. And when we come back in January, if we can answer some of the questions that colleagues had today, that would be great. So I think in your slide presentation, we had just two or three. Maybe we can finish those up by 11:30. And we will start fresh on the SNAP, if I’m making sense to you. 

Mary Franklin Yes, ma’am. 

Representative Mary Bentley Okay, thank you. 

Child Advocacy Centers and other grantees

Mary Franklin Okay. This slide is on the Child Advocacy Centers, which is one of the current 7 discretionary subgrants. The amount of their award for the July 25 through December 25 period of time was $1,900,833.88. And they support the development and support of the local child advocacy centers that are located throughout Arkansas. 

They provide specialized training, technical assistance, and subgrants to those local organizations. The goal of the grant to the child advocacy centers is for them to remain proactive in helping reduce abuse and neglect within our underserved communities across Arkansas and to continue training and collaboration with law enforcement and the local communities to improve outcomes of abuse and neglect. 

And then Our House is one of the subgrantees. Their grant award for the July 25 through December 25 period of time was $950,416.94. In Our House, they work to empower homeless and near homeless families to take charge of their circumstances and build a better life for themselves. The families being served usually are experiencing multiple interconnected crisis and trauma, including domestic violence, incarceration, extreme poverty, health conditions, mental illness, behavioral health challenges, and more. 

And those things in combination can definitely start a family down the road to where separation or even foster care could be necessary. So that is the group that Our House works with. 

And we also have a subgrant with Pulaski County Youth Services. Their subgrant amount for the July through December 25 period was $250,589.21. They have an after-school program, the Emerging Champions Youth Academy. It provides professional and leadership development, soft skills training to increase their self-efficacy, to provide post-secondary pathway resources, career certification, completion opportunities, while they’re improving school attendance, graduation rates for low-income youth, and to introduce them to valuable workforce experiences. That’s the purpose of that grant. 

And Restore Hope. The Restore Hope initiative is also a subgrantee and their July through December 25th grant award amount was $2,052,900.59. And they focus to assist in response to crisis of unprecedented growth in prison and foster care population. The 100 Families initiative is a community led initiative designed to help families move from crisis to stability and on to thriving lives. So that is what the purpose of the grant for Restore Hope. And that gets us through our TANF portion of the presentation. 

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you all so much for your time and all this today. And we’d like to do item C. Secretary, just give an update on the reimbursement rates under the Living Choices Assisted Waiver. 

Living Choices Assisted Waiver

Janet Mann Yes, ma’am. Quick update. We supplied the letter. We have finished the cost report analysis. We recommended holding steady at the current rate. We did put it out for public comment that was recorded last month. That public comment period ended on November 22nd, and we have received numerous comments. I actually asked for the official count this morning. We got 161 comments. So we are going through those to be answered. And then we will be coming forward with a final recommendation. 

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you so much, I appreciate that. Again, colleagues, we’ll be back in January to finish up on SNAP and to get the questions on TANF answered. Thank you all so much for your time today. And with that, we’re done. Thank you.