Bill to extend deadline to distribute anti-poverty funding heads for vote

A Tennessee bill that would extend the timetable for distributing hundreds of millions of dollars in unspent funding amassed in a key anti-poverty program is heading for a vote on the House and Senate floors.

The bill by Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, and Rep. David Hawk, R-Greenville, would give the Tennessee Department of Human Services until 2026 to enter into new or amended contracts for so-called pilot projects intended to stem generational poverty.

Gov. Bill Lee first announced the three-year, $175 million pilot projects in 2022 after public backlash followed the revelation that state leaders had allowed the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to amass a $730 million surplus — dollars from the federal government that never reached the low income families they were earmarked for.

But the state has continued to lag in spending down the surplus. In January, the Lookout reported the program — known as Families First in Tennessee — retains $717 million in reserves. The size of Tennessee’s Families First balance continues to dwarf every state but one.

On Tuesday, Watson said the extension of pilot program expenditures are necessary because the state is also undergoing a study to measure their effectiveness.

“Due to this being a really complicated study, the first time we’ve ever done a randomized controlled study, this would allow the department the ability to extend that a little bit longer than we anticipated,” he said.

So far, seven large nonprofit agencies have participated in the pilot project, offering programs aimed at lifting people out of poverty.

The state also directed other surplus funding to smaller organizations, spent it on computer systems upgrades and increased monthly cash payments to low income families. The $387 average monthly payment Tennessee gives to a family of three remains among the lowest temporary assistance cash payments in the nation.

The bill is the latest timetable adjustment lawmakers have made since enacting 2021 legislation designed to spend down the state’s poverty program surplus.

The state continues to receive a $190 million annual allotment from the federal government for the temporary assistance program. Lawmakers last year extended the requirement that the Department of Human Services fully expend its annual allotment from 12 months to 18 months each year.

And a deadline for an advisory group to issue a report on progress in the program was moved from December 2025 to December 2026.

Read more at TennesseeLookout.com.