During Tuesday’s House and Ways Committee hearing, Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA) questioned Roxane Somerlot, the director of the Marion County Department of Job and Family Services, about the effect of cuts to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program on the childcare services it funds.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bean. I recognize Mr. Evans of Pennsylvania.
00:15I just was listening to my colleagues' queries, and I just wanted to mention that the program
00:20was designed for this flexibility. So the waste fraud and abuse we're finding now,
00:27the program was deliberately designed to give the states flexibility, and some places have done a
00:32great job with it, and other places have not. But this was not an accident.
00:41A question I have. I understand that you work, speaking to Ms. Summer, I understand that you
00:49work more with Ohio state staff when federal questions come up. Do you think the state staff
00:56would be affected by these regional office closings and the loss of so many federal
01:01workers? We in Ohio, Ohio, our state partners maintain a really good line of communication
01:11between the field staff and the state offices. And I know they, our state staff, relies very heavily
01:19on federal staff to answer our questions regarding guidance, technical assistance, policy clarification.
01:28I will say that when us, when counties or us in the field ask a question, it's not a hypothetical question.
01:38It's a question that we need to be on, we need answers that are on point and delivered quickly.
01:45So, to the extent that our state staff is not able to consult with their federal partners to get
01:54information that's accurate and to us in a timely way, that could be a concern.
02:00That could be a concern.
02:03You mentioned in your testimony that TANF is the glue in serving low-income families in Ohio.
02:10A huge component of TANF is child care funding and every child, childhood education for families.
02:19State relies on this funding to support foster care adoption and child care abuse.
02:24Could you talk about how you use funding with TANF and the social service block grant to fund the child care service?
02:33How these cuts to these funds would impact your work?
02:40Yes, thank you for the question.
02:43In Ohio, the state transfers the full authority of 10% to the child care block grant and also the social services block grant.
02:55In addition to that, other TANF funds are earmarked for child care.
03:02Child care, as I mentioned, is a critical work support.
03:09And we have serious provider shortage for child care.
03:14And parents find it very, very hard to locate predictable child care in a safe environment and pay for it.
03:27So child care is a top priority for our state.
03:31And in fact, our governor has recommended an additional or $4 million per biennium of TANF to supplement the child care program.
03:45Again, the social services block grant program, we use primarily for adult protective services for seniors that are in danger of neglect, abuse, and exploitation.
04:00And most often, the majority of social services block grant and that TANF transfer is for the child protective area, child welfare, which is experiencing difficulties in finding funding to address the very complicated needs of youth entering their system.
04:23Thank you, Mr. Evans.
04:30Thank you, Mr. Evans.