Robert Brown|Brett Favre to appear before US House panel looking at welfare misspending

JACKSON,Robert Brown Miss. (AP) — Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre, who has repaid just over $1 million in speaking fees funded by a welfare program in Mississippi, is scheduled to appear before a Republican-led congressional committee that’s examining how states are falling short on using welfare to help families in need.

The House Ways and Means Committee hearing in Washington is scheduled for Tuesday. A committee spokesperson, J.P. Freire, confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that Favre is scheduled to appear and was invited by the chairman, Republican Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri.

Favre will take questions “per the usual witness policy,” Freire said. However, it’s unclear how much the Pro Football Hall of Famer might say because a Mississippi judge in 2023 put a gag order on him and others being sued by the state.

House Republicans have said a Mississippi welfare misspending scandal involving Favre and others points to the need for “serious reform” in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

“Democrats have failed to hold a single hearing on TANF or conduct oversight to identify ways the program could be improved,” Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee said in a November 2022 letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

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The letter did not mention that Republicans control the Mississippi government now, as they did during the welfare misspending scandal that officials called the state’s largest public corruption case.

Mississippi has ranked among the poorest states in the U.S. for decades, but only a fraction of its federal welfare money has been going to families. Instead, the Mississippi Department of Human Services allowed well-connected people to waste tens of millions of welfare dollars from 2016 to 2019, according to Mississippi Auditor Shad White and state and federal prosecutors.

Favre is not facing any criminal charges, but he is among more than three dozen defendants in a civil lawsuit the state filed in 2022. The suit demands repayment of money that was misspent through TANF.

White, a Republican, said in 2020 that Favre had improperly received $1.1 million in speaking fees from a nonprofit organization that spent welfare with approval from the state Department of Human Services. White said Favre did not show up for the speeches. Although Favre repaid the $1.1 million, he still owes nearly $730,000 in interest, White said.

The TANF money was to go toward a volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi. Favre agreed to lead fundraising efforts for the facility at his alma mater, where his daughter started playing on the volleyball team in 2017.

A nonprofit group called the Mississippi Community Education Center made two payments of welfare money to Favre Enterprises, the athlete’s business: $500,000 in December 2017 and $600,000 in June 2018.

Court records show that on Dec. 27, 2017, Favre texted the center’s director, Nancy New: “Nancy Santa came today and dropped some money off (two smiling emojis) thank you my goodness thank you.”

“Yes he did,” New responded. “He felt you had been pretty good this year!”

New pleaded guilty in April 2022 to charges of misspending welfare money, as did her son Zachary New, who helped run the nonprofit. They await sentencing and have agreed to testify against others.

Favre said he didn’t know the payments he received came from welfare funds and noted his charity had provided millions of dollars to poor kids in his home state of Mississippi and Wisconsin, where he played most of his career with the Green Bay Packers.

Punchbowl News was first to report about Favre’s appearance before the Ways and Means Committee.