Brett Favre to appear before the US commission looking into welfare misspending

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre, who has repaid just over $1 million in speaking fees funded by a Mississippi welfare program, is scheduled to appear before a congressional panel led by Republicans examining how states don’t fit. on using social assistance to help families in need.

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

Favre will answer questions “in accordance with normal witness policy,” Freire said. However, it’s unclear how much the Pro Football Hall of Famer might say, as a Mississippi judge in 2023 placed a gag order on him and others being sued by the state.

House Republicans said a welfare misspending scandal in Mississippi involving Favre and others points to the need for “serious reform” of 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 the US Secretary of Defense health and human services, Xavier Becerra.

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

Mississippi has ranked among the poorest states in the US for decades, but only a fraction of its federal welfare money has gone to families. Instead, the Mississippi Department of Human Services allowed well-connected people to squander 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 criminal charges, but he is among more than three dozen defendants in a civil lawsuit the state filed in 2022. The lawsuit seeks reimbursement of money misspent through TANF.

White, a Republican, said in 2020 that Favre improperly received $1.1 million in speaking fees from a nonprofit that spent welfare with the approval of the state Department of Human Services. White said Favre did not show up for the speeches. Although Favre has 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 welfare payments 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 left some money (two smiley emojis) thank you, God, thank you.”

“Yes, he did,” New replied. “He felt you were 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 are awaiting sentencing and have agreed to testify against others.

Favre said he did not know the payments he received came from welfare funds and noted that his charity has given millions of dollars to poor children in his home states of Mississippi and Wisconsin, where he played most of career with the Green Bay Packers.

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