Why is Brett Favre appearing before US House panel on Tuesday?
Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre is scheduled to appear before the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday after being invited by the Republican chair.
Brett Favre is scheduled to appear before the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday after being invited by the Republican chair. Punchbowl News was the first to report that the retired NFL quarterback has been invited to speak before the committee examining how states are using welfare funds.
Specifically, they are looking into the failure of money to get to families in need from programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). They say that the program needs “serious reform” as indicated by a major scandal in Mississippi involving Favre and others where funds were misspent.
Why is Brett Favre appearing before US House panel on Tuesday?
Favre, along with over three dozen defendants, have been sued by Mississippi requesting them to repay money that was improperly given to them from TANF funding. The Pro Football Hall of Famer is not facing any criminal charges and said that he was unaware that the $1.1 million he was paid in speaking fees came from the welfare program.
His business, Favre Enterprises, received the funds from a non-profit group called the Mississippi Community Education Center in the form of two payments, one in 2017 and another in 2018 of $500,000 and $600,000, respectively. He has since returned those payments to the state but still owes close to $730,000 in interest according to Mississippi Auditor Shad White reports the Associated Press.
The head of the non-profit, Nancy New, and her son, Zachary New, who helped run the center, pleaded guilty in April 2022 to charges in connection with the largest welfare embezzlement scheme in Mississippi history.
As for what Favre will be able to tell the House panel on Tuesday is in doubt. In 2023, the judge overseeing the civil lawsuit placed a gag order on the defendants in the case.
Republicans on the committee accused Democrats in a November 2022 letter to US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra of “failing to hold a single hearing on TANF or conduct oversight to identify ways the program could be improved.”
However, they left out any reference to the fact that, like today, when the tens of millions of dollars in welfare was misspent between 2016 and 2019, the state government, which is responsible for delivering money from the welfare program, was run by Republicans.