House and Senate minority leaders convene 3rd TANF hearing – Hearing titled – Poverty in Mississippi: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

By Christopher Young,
Contributing Writer,

At least 75 people filled Room 115 at the Mississippi Capitol October 15, 2025, to discuss the state’s TANF program. Legislators, policy experts, leaders of multi-state anti-poverty organizations, reform advocates and Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) staff members were on hand for the scheduled three-hour hearing that ran an hour over.
Also in attendance, the Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist Anna Wolfe, who broke the news of the TANF scandal – where upwards of $97 million of federal funding intended for the neediest people in the poorest state in the nation was diverted under Republican administrations for their own pet projects. There have been zero Republican led hearings.
Large posterboards encapsulating the entire ordeal lined the head of the meeting rooms as House Minority Leader Robert L. Johnson III (D- 94) and Senate Minority Leader Derrick T. Simmons (D-12) called the meeting to order and gave opening statements, including that bills intended to reform the system continue to be voted down in both House and Senate committees. One posterboard listed the things that Nancy New, now serving a 99-year federal sentence that is expected by some to be completed in 25 years, directed TANF funds toward, in her role as the owner of the non-profit Mississippi Community Education Center, a MDHS subgrantee.
They include $200,000 to Soul City Hospitality represented by local restaurateur Jeff Good to lease warehouse space that was never used, $5,101,710 to retired WWE wrestlers Ted DiBiase – Ted DiBiase, Jr. – Brent DiBiase, $1,309,183 for exercise classes to Paul LaCoste’s Victory Sports Foundation, $2,150,000 to a biomedical company Brett Favre and former Governor Philip Bryant tried to recruit Mississippi, $400,000 to various state lobbyists, and $9,500 per month for lease of a horse-ranch owned by the Marcus Dupree Foundation – no connections to directly helping the poorest of the poor in Mississippi – and being done as over 90% of TANF applications were being declined across our state.

In case the reader was wondering, the $5 million for Brett Farve’s volleyball arena at University of Southern Mississippi and the $1,100,000 paid to Farve for speaking engagements where he was reportedly a no-show, was listed on a separate posterboard.
Comments from Southern Poverty Law Center Policy Director Sonya Williams Barnes included that “in 2022, $59 million was spent with TANF Block Grant Funds (federal funds) and only 7% reached Mississippi families in the form of direct cash assistance.” And that “Mississippi is one of only 5 states that has not made some adjustment to the minimum wage.”
She also highlighted that present income caps require families to make less than $10,300 per year in order to be eligible for cash assistance, and that Mississippi’s $260 per month for a single parent is the second worst in the country. And that in 2022, of the 1,576 applications for direct assistance, only 8.5% were approved – 133 families. Another complicating issue is that <15% of TANF parents have a high school diploma.
Reverend Dr. Jason Coker, president and national director of Together for Hope, the rural development coalition of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship spoke on the moral rationale for ensuring that TANF is expedited to those that need it most. “It’s kind of crazy to think that Mississippi needs to have a religious leader to beg for poor people…It is clear from scripture that we have a moral imperative to do all we can so that’s God’s will may be done on earth even as it is in heaven. He cited a Letter from James, Matthew 25:41…taking care of the least of these is a mandate from God Almighty…it seems like Mississippi, a state saturated in religion and church should be bursting at the seems with a robust social safety net better than any state in the nation. It is an abomination to God and humanity that we have such deep poverty in Mississippi…we create this kind of poverty by the policies we create in this very building. While TANF abuses were happening by the people at the top, 95% of TANF applications were being denied…our system is not broken, our system is designed against the poor.”
Representative Zakiya Summers (D-68) asked Dr. Coker a simple question – why? He responded. I think we all know that answer – I think it’s racist to the core, and based on white superiority, based on the belief that some people are better than others. In the TANF scandal, I mean we have all this money from the federal government that is supposed to take care of needy families, and those in charge said they don’t deserve it, we deserve it.”
Tonya Murphy, a storyteller and advocate for women and girls, shared that she was once a TANF recipient thirty years ago. Years later, after completing her college degree she worked for a company that contracted with MDHS and served as an employment readiness specialist – full circle. She reported that currently there are only 1,000 families receiving TANF. Her testimony was clear, forceful, and very well received.
Current MDHS Executive Director Robert G. Anderson gave a sprawling testimony of the improved posture of the TANF Program. He indicated that 5% ($4,500,00) of MDHS funding goes to direct cash assistance. He provided a complete listing of the (currently) 25 TANF subgrantees that provide services for workforce training and education, afterschool programs, and Parenthood Initiatives. He assured that changes have been made on his watch to ensure that the fraud that was orchestrated by his predecessor will not happen again.
Most disturbing though, he stated that “We don’t have a TANF expert at MDHS.” Having served in this capacity since March of 2020, it is inexcusable that he has not been able to recruit a TANF expert. In answering a legislators’ question, he said that there is currently $160 million in unliquidated and unobligated TANF funding available. He reports directly to the Governor Reeves, the same one who fired eminently qualified attorney Brad Pigott after he served subpoenas on University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation for communications with former Governor Bryant, his wife and Brett Farve over the $5 million in TANF funds on a volleyball arena.