Thread by @ayewolfe

I recently found an article I wrote in 2014 about our embattled, meager #TANF program. In 6 years covering and, at times, exhaustively poking at welfare, I have never heard an agency official outright say we should expand our benefits and eligibility to offer cash to more people.

That happened a couple weeks ago. Read my interview with @MS_DHS Director Bob Anderson here @MSTODAYnews : mississippitoday.org/2020/07/22/qa-…

And yet, with laws and reg limitations, the agency is not retooling the state’s primary cash assistance program to offer more direct assistance to families struggling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the way at least one neighboring state has done: mississippitoday.org/2020/07/22/in-…

I’ve been asking the state to show me how it spends #TANF for 3 years now and have no plans to stop. We know spending during JD’s admin was a mess. Here's how @MS_DHS said it spent #TANF in a 7mo. period after he left: $4m on direct assistance vs. $18m on other stuff, for one.

Direct assistance payments appeared to include transportation stipends. It also transferred $30m to CPS. So that’s $52m used, seven months in, with about $35m available to spend by October (barring any other transfers they may not have mentioned to me).

It’s pretty hard to reconcile/match up purchases with grant awards, so I can’t paint a full picture for you. But here’s what I know: mississippitoday.org/2020/07/22/was…