Republicans Call Brett Favre As Expert Witness On Welfare Fraud
HuffPost
The former NFL star said he paid back more than $1 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds he claimed to have unwittingly received from the state of Mississippi.
WASHINGTON — Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre became one of the unlikeliest expert witnesses of all time on Tuesday when he testified about welfare fraud in a House committee hearing.
The state of Mississippi accused Favre in 2022 of improperly receiving $1 million in funds from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, the federal program most closely associated with the word “welfare.”
Favre was not charged with a crime and has maintained he didn’t know he had improperly received the money, which came from grants through a nonprofit organization and which he said he repaid.
“When this started, I didn’t know what TANF was,” Favre said in an opening statement on Tuesday. (Favre also revealed for the first time that he’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.)
“I have learned that nobody was or is watching how TANF funds are spent,” he added. “States have too much flexibility in how they spend this money.”
