Appropriations Committee presses DCF on federal benefit funding, TANF swaps and LIHEAP uncertainty

The Appropriations Committee on Thursday heard an overview from Department for Children and Families officials on federal benefit funding streams and asked staff to return with more detailed budget figures and timelines.

Megan Smeaton, financial director for the Department for Children and Families, and Leslie Wisdom, food and nutrition program director for DCF’s Economic Services Division, briefed the committee on SNAP, LIHEAP, TANF and the recently approved Summer EBT program. Committee members pressed for clearer numbers in the state budget system and follow-up on weatherization drawdowns and how TANF “swaps” affect maintenance-of-effort calculations.

The discussion mattered because several of the funding lines are large, fluctuate year to year and depend on federal approvals and state accounting choices that affect how much federal funding DCF can claim. “Only the cash-out portion of our SNAP program goes through DCF. The rest of it, the federal dollars never flow through our budget,” Smeaton told the…