House Standing Committee on Human Services & Homelessness

Aloha. Good morning everybody. We are here with the Committee on Human Services and Homelessness for this State house. It is October 28th, 11am in room 309. And we're here to hear from Bezdi at DHS about some of the changes and opportunities around federal policy for our SNAP program.

And I'm here with Vice Chair Ikaika Olds and Committee Member Sue Keohokapu-Lee Loy and Representative Della Belatti. And the floor is yours. Please go through your presentation and we'll hold our questions till he's finished. And. Then we'll ask for clarification. But thank you very much for being here in this very busy time.

Thank you, Chair. Okay, so again, good morning Chair, Vice Chair and Committee Members. My name is Scott Morishige. I'm the administrator of the Benefit, Employment and Support Services Division with the Hawaii Department of Human Services. And I'm joined here this morning with.

Our Deputy Director Joseph Campos, my Assistant Division Administrator Scott Nakasone, and our SNAP Program Administrator Jeanette Hayes. And our Director Ryan Yamane senses regrets that he's not able to attend in person today. The purpose of our briefing is primarily. On the changes to SNAP regarding able bodied adult work requirements. But we will also briefly talk about.

Other changes related to the ooba, the. One Big Beautiful Bill act, as well as the impacts of the Federal Government shutdown on SNAP and what efforts the state is doing to respond to that. Okay, so I'll start first by just. Providing a quick overview of our division. So BESD is the largest DHS division.

By position count within the Department. We have nearly 700 staff located in. 19 offices throughout the state. That includes nearly 400 eligibility workers and. Clerical staff that are responsible for the processing of SNAP and financial assistance benefits. Collectively, our processing centers serve 85,000 households. Or an estimated 166,000 plus individuals annually that receive SNAP and financial assistance benefits.

And again, brief overview of what SNAP is. I think many of you are familiar. But the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamp benefits, are benefits. Issued on an electronic benefit transfer card. Or EBT card that families can use. To purchase groceries at authorized retailers. And SNAP recipients must meet income and.

Other program requirements to qualify. And then really briefly, I always like. To just provide a snapshot of what. SNAP participation looks like throughout the state. So statewide, as of the month of. September, the last full month, we have. Data for there were 86,229 households statewide that received SNAP. That's 168,947 individuals.

The average household size was about 2 and the average benefit per person was a little under $347 per month annually. The program distributes between 58 to 60 $1.0 million in benefits each month, so the impact of the program is pretty significant.

Our greatest distribution of SNAP participants is on Oahu in the city and County of Honolulu with 50,729 households totaling over 100,000 persons served. Okay, so I'll get right to the. Heart of our presentation and talk about the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill act or OAA, also referred to as HR1 or Budget Reconciliation.

This was signed into law on July 4th, 2025 and it makes a number of changes to the SNAP program. Specifically some changes that go into effect. As of November 1st related to able body adult work requirements and other changes impacting non citizen eligibility.

The USDA Food and Nutrition Service clarified earlier this year in September that changes to able bodied adult work requirements actually took effect upon Oabba's enactment on July 4th and there is a hold harmless. Period of 120 days that would end on November 1st. Which is why we're talking about the. Implementation taking effect November 1st for these requirements.

In preparation of that upcoming deadline, DHS has worked to make modifications to our legacy HAVI eligibility system and has been. Providing policy clarification to our staff to. Implement the changes that take effect next month. So specifically regarding able bodied adult work requirements, I just wanted to provide some. Brief background on what that is.

So this is formally known as our staff would call it ABOD, ABAWD or Able Bodied Adults Without Dependence Work Requirements and it formally applied only to able bodied adults age 18 to 54 years. Old without dependents that they were caring for. Now that's changed with the passages of OBBBA.

So now there are some households with dependents that are subject to these requirements. But specifically able bodied adults under these work requirements must meet work participation for at least 80 hours in a month. Or an average of 20 hours per week. Now that's a range of activities that could be used to meet these requirements.

It could include paid employment, including self employment, volunteer activity with a nonprofit organization or governmental organization, or participation in a. Job training program such as the SNAP. Employment and Training Program or the American Job Centers.

If an individual does not meet able bodied adult work requirements or are not exempted from the work requirements, there is a time limit where they would be limited to receive SNAP only for 3 months and be unable to reapply for. SNAP for 36 months or about 3. Years or until the able bodied adult. Work requirements are met.

So this is a change that potentially has significant impact for households if they're. Not able to comply with the work requirements. So I'll talk next about the specific changes that the OBBBA made. Mainly the change was in who is. Now subject to this. In addition to the adults aged 18 to 54, the following populations will be.

Newly subject to these work requirements. So it'd be adults age 55 to 64. So our kupuna population, adults and households with dependent children age 14 and older, people experiencing homelessness, veterans and youth age 18 to 24 that transition from foster care. Those last three groups are previously covered under an exception to the work requirements.

So they were not subject to them previously, but they will be starting from next month. So one of the things I want. To clarify about these requirements is I. Think when you first look at them, there's a thought this will impact everybody. All at one time in one fell swoop. That's not the case.

So as for these individuals are newly subject to the requirements, they'll be assessed for them as their interview comes up. So this could be either their interview. For their SNAP application or for their recertification.

So for example, if there's someone whose interview is not scheduled For January of 2026, January is when they would be assessed for these work requirements and then the three months would start from the. Three months following that.

So just wanted to provide that clarity for folks about when, if you are in one of these categories, when you would be assessed to see if you're. Subject to these work requirements or not. The other thing is that again, just. As a reminder, this goes into effect next month, November 1, 2025 or this Saturday.

Okay, next I'll just briefly talk about who is not subject to the work requirements. And like I mentioned, there's a number of groups that might be exempted or. Not subject to this. So it includes people who are not able bodied.

So people who may have a medically confirmed physical or mental disability, individuals who are pregnant, those who are caretakers for incapacitated individual, individuals in a school, college or other training program at least half time, those receiving disability benefits, individuals who are applying for unemployment benefits, individuals who are participating in a drug or alcohol treatment program.

The new provision also under OBBA is it also provides an exception for those that meet the definition of Indian, urban Indian or California Indian under the Indian. Health Care Improvement Act. We have gotten questions about this.

So I did want to clarify that this last category does not include Native Hawaiians because as defined under The Indian Healthcare Improvement act that primarily applies to. Native American or Alaska Native tribal groups. And then finally, I mentioned earlier that the Department has a SNAP employment and training program.

This is a program that's also supported by the Federal Government by the usda. So SNAP employment and training are what we call SNAP entities is a voluntary program that helps SNAP participants gain skills and find employment. It also assists households who need to. Comply with these work requirements.

So a DHS eligibility worker during the interview can screen the individual to see if a referral to SNAP ENT is appropriate, then can refer someone to this program for services. And we contract with Goodwill Hawaii on Oahu and Maui and with the state.

Department of Labor and Industrial Relations on the Big island and on Kauai for these services. And again, referral to SNAP ENT is not the only way that someone can meet the work requirements. Again, you could participate in a job training program with American Job Centers.

You could be doing volunteer work with a nonprofit or governmental group or if they have employment for at least 20 hours per week, whether it's paid employment or self employment, they just need to. Provide verification of that to us.

Okay, one thing I did want to share, which is a little bit of breaking news, is that Hawaii, in the one Big Beautiful Bill act, there is a special exemption for non contiguous states for Alaska and Hawaii to exempt us from essentially being subject to payment error.

While we're trying to implement these new requirements specifically for the able bodied adult work requirements under OBBBA. So Hawaii did submit exemption requests to USDA on October 10th and we were actually just informed today, earlier this morning that we were approved for that exemption that will hold us harmless from payment.

Error through September 30, 2026 related to these requirements. So we're still, you know, reviewing that. Exemption approval and working to implement it. But I did want to note it and that this exemption is part will help with our efforts to reduce our. Payment error rate below 6%.

And that number getting it below 6% is really critical because one of the other requirements related the OABBA is I believe in the 2028, October 2028 or 2027, sorry, October 1, 2027 states will potentially be subject to paying a portion of the benefit amount for SNAP based. On our payment error rate if it's over 6%.

So we really want to do everything we can to bring it below that 3 threshold. One thing that's critical to note is this exemption requires that Hawaii continue to make good faith efforts to implement the OBBA changes related to the work requirements.

So you may be wondering why, you know, are we moving forward with the implementation starting November 1st? And that's part of the reason is that while we get this exemption to essentially hold us harmless from payment error, we're still subject to making a good. Faith effort to move forward with implementation of the requirements.

I did also want to note that there's other, as I mentioned earlier, other OBBBA impacts that are effective November 1st. This is primarily changes to SNAP eligibility for non citizens.

So effective November 1, only the following non citizen households will still be eligible for SNAP and that would include lawful permanent residents, individuals present in the US based on the Compact of Free Association or COFA residents, and Cuban or Haitian entrants. So previously there were different categories of. Non citizens that were eligible, including refugees, asylees, different parolees.

Those individuals, with the exception of three. Categories I mentioned, will no longer be eligible. And that's a big change that we. Also want people to be aware of.

One thing to note is that if there is an ineligible non citizen in the household, they must still be reported as part of the household group applying or during recertification for the SNAP household and the income of any ineligible non citizen will still be counted in full towards the household's total income.

So those are just a couple points we want people to be aware of. The next thing I wanted to touch on because I think it's top of. Mind for everybody is just the USDA suspension of SNAP benefits that also goes into effect this Saturday November 1st.

So on October 10th, USDA sent a memo directing states to hold sending our files for payment of the November SNAP. Benefit to our EBT vendor. So Hawaii normally would send that file to our vendor actually yesterday, on October 28th, on the evening of the 28th, four business days before the end of the month.

But we in compliance with this, we. Held off on sending that monthly insurance file. And actually on October 24, last week, Friday, USDA directed states to suspend SNAP. November benefits effective November 1, 2025. That's because USDA communicated that their understanding is there is not enough funding to provide a full month worth of benefits.

For the month of November. And it is USDA's position that they. Cannot use federal contingency funds for that purpose. To ensure that the public had full awareness of what is going on, DHS issued a news release last week Friday, that same day that we were informed to inform the public of the suspension of benefits.

We posted information actually a few days prior to that on our website with frequently asked questions so people can be aware of what's going on? We'll continue to update our website with. Information as the situation evolves. We've also put language on our call center phone line that people call in for public benefits as well as on.

Our Public Assistance Information System portal where people can apply online for benefits. So key points that people should know regarding the impact of the federal shutdown on SNAP is that again, SNAP benefits will be suspended and not issued out. As they normally would be on the 1st, 3rd and 5th. So that's our normal payment schedule.

Some people receive it on the 1st. And the majority of SNAP participants receive their benefits on the third and the fifth, depending on their last name. And that will continue as long as. A federal shutdown is ongoing.

What we do want people to know is although SNAP benefits for November are suspended, cash benefits such as TANF benefits or General assistance benefits are not affected. In addition, SNAP benefits available on the EBT card from October or prior month are not affected and people can still. Use these benefits at participating retailers.

We also want the public to know that DHS remains open and we are continuing to process applications for SNAP and other benefits. So this means that if a client has an interview scheduled for application or recertification, please keep that interview.

If we have requested documents from you that are due back to us, please continue to submit those documents to us. If you're required to report changes to us and you're a mandatory change household required to report changes in your income, change in your household composition or change of address, please continue to report those changes to us.

So the Department has responded to the suspension of benefits in a few key ways. I'll highlight here. The first, like I mentioned, is we really want to ensure that information gets out and people know there's one central place where you can go to to get information and to answer any questions.

You might have about the suspension of SNAP benefits. So we put everything on the DHS [email protected] We're continuing to update that as. We get more information available. Second, the Department is working with the Hawaii Food Bank and we're working to provide an additional $2 million in funding to them to help meet increased demand.

For food that they're seeing during these unprecedented times. And we selected the Hawaii Food bank because they have a proven distribution system. To get food quickly out statewide.

So Hawaii Food Bank actually partners with the Maui Food bank and the Food Basket and Hawaii Food Bank serves Oahu and Kauai, the Food Basket serves Hawaii island, and Maui Food bank serves Maui County.

So through those Three agencies, they have statewide reach and they also have a network of 500 food pantries and partner organizations that help them get that food out quickly. And if you look at organizations providing food assistance, the vast majority get that food from the Hawaii Food Bank and their two primary partners.

So in addition to that effort, we're also utilizing $100 million in federal temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds to establish the Hawaii Relief Program for eligible families with dependent children with incomes of up. To 300% of the federal poverty level. So that is something that the Governor.

And our Department leadership has felt strongly about that we wanted to make sure that we're getting resources out to the community very quickly. So I will also share just some brief information regarding the HAU Relief Program. We did issue a news release, I believe, earlier today to get the word out about this new program.

I wanted to just quickly go over the eligibility requirements and this should also be available online on our DHS website. But again, because we are using federal TANF funds to qualify for this program, you need to be a family with a dependent child under the age of 18.

You must be a Hawaii resident and your family must demonstrate an episode of need or a financial crisis. And the family must have not received other income, housing or utility payments that made duplicate payments available through this program. And then there are the income limits kind of specified below.

Again, the income threshold for this program is 300% of the federal poverty level. So for a household of four that. Would be a household of four that earns up to $9,245 per month. One thing I want to clarify is this program is a non recurring benefit.

So it's not ongoing assistance, it's limited up to four months of support per type of assistance that we can provide. So types of support provided by the program include a one time housing deposit of the actual cost up to a maximum of $6,000. Housing payment, actual cost up to a max of $6,000 for up to four months.

A one time utility deposit, actual cost of up to $3,000 for each utility source, electric, water or gas and utility payments, actual costs up to Max of. $2,000 for up to four months. I want to clarify the housing payment can include both rent or mortgage.

And also a household can receive assistance separately with a housing deposit as well as the four months of housing support as well as the four months of utility payment per utility. So there's potentially a very deep level. Of assistance that can be provided. And I mentioned that one of the criteria is you must have a financial.

Crisis or episode of financial need. And so again, that must be identified and may have resulted from an unexpected. Event that caused the family's financial instability. And as far as who is administering the Hawaii Relief Program, this is not something that the Department is administering directly. We're contracting nonprofit community partners who have. A proven record of.

Of administering this type of assistance. Specifically, we have two main contractors we are working with. So for Oahu, Kauai and Hawaii island, that would be Catholic Charities Hawaii. And for residents on Maui, Molokai and. Lanai, we are working with Maui Economic Opportunity meo. And MEO has set up a similar. Program for US, a Maui leaf tanf.

Program that we stood up shortly after. The 2023 wildfires on Maui to provide similar type of support. And we again work with these two providers because both of them do have. Experience in administering similar programs on a statewide basis and the proven ability to get the benefits out quickly to the community.

And I apologize for going through things quickly. I know that's a lot of information. But thank you just for your ongoing support. And if you have any questions, both. Myself and our staff are available to take any questions you have.

Thank you. Thank you very much for all of that. It's a lot of information. I think some of it is a little bit familiar to some of us who have been following. And we do have a hard stop at noon so that you can get back to providing all these benefits.

So maybe we'll go through and take one question from each person as a start, if you have anyone, any. And I also just wanted to recognize that we did have some more representatives join us. Thank you very much, Chair Takayama, for being here. And thank you, Representative Garcia. So we'll start with Mr. Garcia.

Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Scott, for being here. A question regarding the Hawaii Relief Program. So those who qualify, they must have a dependent child under 18 years old. So what happens to the kupuna in this Administration situation? Are seniors who are going to lose SNAP benefits due to the shutdown.

So do they qualify in this Hawaii Relief Program? So because of the source of funding. We're using specifically for the Hawaii Relief Program being TANF, we're restricted by those who are eligible for TANF assistance. So that would be a family with a dependent child. I'll defer to Deputy Director Campos about.

Our broader efforts, but I know Governor Green and our Department leadership have been also looking at other options to provide broader support to community, and I think. We hope to be able to share. Updates on those programs soon. I will note that our assistance for the Hawaii Food Bank, that 2 million, it's not limited, just for families.

And I think that is intended to. Support the food bank's efforts to get food out to the broader community, including our kupuna or those without a child who may immediately need food.

So to clarify, the seniors won't be included in this Hawaii Relief Program?

No, again, the Hawaii Relief Program, because. Of the source of funding being tanf, it is limited to a family with a dependent child under the age of 18. However, if there is a kupuna member. That is in that household that has. A dependent child, they may be eligible as part of that household.

Thank you. Any other questions?

Thanks, Scott, for being here. I was just really curious. You know, you list all the eligibility requirements, and so specifically, being a Hawaii resident, I'm curious what type of documentation you're looking for is there. Thank you for standing up a FAQ page, right.

Frequently Asked Questions page, like, I want to be able to prepare my community and our community navigators to help you guys, so a lot of this process goes a little easier.

No, thank you for the question. So actually, you know, to address that, we've actually put up as part of the updates the website made this morning, part of the announcement for this program. It does include an FAQ specifically to. The Hawaii Relief Program that goes over the different documentation needed and some of the other program requirements.

So that information is available online to assist community partners who are helping people to apply, as well as people who might want to directly apply for benefits.

Themselves and then just follow up to that, because ultimately, that's what I'm trying to do. Right. I'm trying to prepare my community.

If you want to access these funds during this time, how to show up prepared is the Department, besides the FAQs and what's on the website, are you guys doing, like short video clips, kind of talking them through?

Again, being a good community navigator where they might not be able to get on a website, at least they could just watch a video.

So, you know, again, we're working with community partners, both Catholic Charities, Hawaii and meo, that have experience working with other nonprofits and communities to get the assistance out. So, for example, for the Maui Relief TANF program program, MEO did work with community partners navigators that provide that level of support.

So both of our contractors that we're working with have the ability to kind of partner with those other organizations as they come up to kind of support them in getting the word out there very quickly.

Okay, great. Thank you. Thank You Chair.

Anyone else? Chair Takayama.

Hi. Thank you, Scott. Question. The income limits that are specified under the Hawaii LEAF program program are those consistent with those qualifying for SNAP benefits?

It's actually higher than what the income criteria would be for the SNAP program. And I want to clarify that the. Hawaii Relief Program has a broader net than just being open for people who are currently receiving SNAP and are a family. So we know that the impact on. Community is very broad.

So there are people who are furloughed who are, who are not getting paid, who might have a family with a dependent child. We know there's other people just impacted directly by the General economic slowdown. So the program provides relief to a broader net of people, and we wanted to focus it specifically on housing.

So although the Hawaii Relief Program doesn't provide direct support with food, it is helping families by targeting housing, which is the largest expense that local families struggle. Struggle with freeing up their budget so. That they are able to better meet their food needs, while also making sure that addresses rent or mortgage payment.

Because we know that, you know, families don't have the option of not paying their rent or not paying their utilities. To support their families. So we want to make sure that relief was available for them.

Okay. And when you require a demonstration of an episode of need or financial crisis, does being furloughed by this Federal Government shutdown, does that qualify?

Yes, that would qualify. And the family would, you know, as part of their application be able to kind of just detail the impact of that on their household and how it is causing financial instability and putting the household at risk of falling behind on their housing or utility payments. Does loss of SNAP benefits qualify? Yes.

We did clarify with our staff who worked on this contract that that would also be a situation that would qualify.

Okay, and last question. You set aside $100 million from TANF for this. Is that a one shot thing or is there a possibility of extending more funds?

So, you know, we're immediately committing the. $100 million up to that amount being between the two contractors. However, we are continuing to monitor the situation and, you know, are prepared to make adjustments if needed based on the demand we see from the community.

Thank you.

Anybody else question?

The commitment for the utilization of those TANF funds for this Hawaii Relief Program is based upon guidance from the federal agency. Is that guidance in writing and is that guidance from employees who are, who are stable employees within that federal agency?

So again, just as brief background, I think use of TANF funds has to be consistent with four primary purposes of tanf. And we have clarified that this use is consistent with that purpose.

Again, this is based on our use of TANF funds for the Maui Relief TANF program in response to Maui Wildfires as part of a similar effort.

We had clarified with the Administration for Children and Families within federal Department of Health and Human Services that we can use TANF to provide what we call non assistance temporary, non recurring benefits of up to four months.

So we have clarified that with the ACF staff and I'll defer to my colleagues just to kind of confirm that we have that guidance in writing from them, but that is my understanding. Yeah.

And she's nodding in writing from current administrators, not based upon guidance from the federal wildfires. Because I want to note the federal wildfire guidance was given under a different Administration. So Biden's Administration.

So we, if we're going to be committing $100 million of TANF funds, we better make sure that we have guidance from this Administration because then my next question is a number of attorney generals have sued for a tro and what is the status of that lawsuit so that maybe benefits will be turned on on November 1st.

Yeah.

So two part question.

No, no problem. Thank you for the question.

So we have been working to tee up this program actually even prior to the federal shutdown under this current Administration, getting consultation from ACF because we knew that there would likely be some impact to federal funding or broad impact to community where we would need to be able to stand up such a program quickly.

So we did get clarification from officials within this current Administration that were under. In response to your second question, DHS is part, or actually the Hawaii Attorney General is part of that litigation that you mentioned and DHS is part of that effort and hopeful that it may result in some freeing up of contingency funds for this purpose.

But we also know that the impact of the federal shutdown again goes far beyond just the impact for the SNAP program. And again, that was the intent of the Hawaii Relief Program to provide this broader relief. I hope that answers the question.

It does. I still want to ask the question though, about the writing in writing the guidance, because it's really key, I think, and if you're saying that there is strong confirmable guidance from this Trump Administration that we may use the $100 million of tenant funds, I would like to make sure that that's in writing.

That's my understanding. But we can double check with our staff as well.

Thank you.

Questions, Chair thank you. Chair thank you, Scott, for being here. Just a few questions. Having worked with many families who are on SNAP, I know sometimes getting notifications to them can be difficult. How far in advance did you guys give notifications? So we knew this back in July.

Was there a letter that went out back in July and then maybe one more recent as a reminder? Because sometimes we have to send more than one for it to reach the individuals.

I think in regards to able bodied adult work requirements. So, yes, the Oabba was enacted July 4, but typically for this type of change and in the legislation, there was no specific implementation date for the work requirements mentioned. Typically what would happen is the Federal Government would adopt rules, you know, federal regulations to guide the implementation.

In this case, that did not occur. So we were monitoring it to see what would happen with that process. In September, we were notified by USDA that they considered that change to go into effect immediately upon enactment and they had mentioned that November 1st date.

We wanted to make sure that we made the necessary modifications so we could support the change before it was announced to the public.

And then starting in early October, we did put information on our website, got information out to our SNAP outreach partners and other community providers, followed that up with news announcements to make sure we're trying to get that word out to as broad a population as possible.

I know you have to keep repeating the information, making sure it's accessible in as many different formats as possible. As far as the impact of the federal shutdown on snap, again, per the timeline I mentioned, we were notified on October 10 to hold the transmission of the files.

But we're also cautious about making sure we communicate information that is known what the clear impact would be. So we're monitoring the situation.

As soon as it became clear that there was an immediate impact, we were quite quickly with our Department leadership to get that word out there and really, again, trying to go through as many different forums as possible, communicate to people what is going on, what we know, and to clarify that this only impacts SNAP benefits.

If you're getting cash payments, it does not impact that you can still use any balance from a prior month for SNAP that you have on your card.

Then for this whole year relief program. Few questions about it. So the first is for the income requirements, is it gross or is it net gross? That's gross. Okay. For kind of a follow up. So for the.

Particularly for the federal workers right now, whether they're furloughed or they're just not getting paid, but they're working, they are being promised that they will get paid later. Right? They will get retroactive pay. Would they qualify for this program as it stands currently, even though they will be getting a paycheck later?

So like, yeah, no. Good question. It's based on their current situation. So them being able to demonstrate during their interview and on their application that this is what they're currently experiencing. So that's the circumstance that our contractors are looking at for this.

Okay, my last question is, I understand the whole this relief program was not for Kupuna. Is there a possibility for us to make one for Kupunan? Can you visualize us doing that?

So as I mentioned, I think the Governor and the Department of Leadership are looking at just a variety of other options available. We understand that the Hawaii Relief Program is only for families and they're looking at other ways that we can provide support to address the suspension of SNAP benefits for the other populations.

Okay, thank you.

All right, I have a lot of questions. I'll start with ones that are related to the Hawaii Relief Program. So if somebody is furloughed and they do have a higher annual income than these, than what is on the chart, but they can't make their current rent or mortgage because their current income is zero, how does that work?

I believe it's based on their current situation. So how much income they're currently receiving, I would encourage them to still apply, go through the process because every situation is a little bit different and make sure that you get that information directly from the contractor.

Because I think you or one of our providers, because I think you have to look at the specific circumstance of the household is going through. And I don't want to give potentially incorrect information without all the facts of each unique situation.

Along those same lines, are there any limits on assets or savings to qualify? Will that be part of the picture? Just trying to think what to tell constituents. What do they need to know?

Again, all of that information is part of the FAQs that we've put online. I think we wanted to make sure all the information is central in one place so people are easily able to access it and go there. And again, I'll double check with my staff, but I don't believe there is an asset limit for the program.

Okay. And so for People specifically, again, that might be applying for the first time for something like this because their income suddenly went to zero are there. What would make it be less than four months or up to four months at your. What you have said up to four months. Are there.

Check ins to see if that situation has changed and they no longer need that public assistance.

You know, I think it's based on the situation that they present on their application. And some of these questions I would encourage households to have. I would encourage them to apply directly. If you see that you're experiencing a crisis, you see you're going to have an impact, difficulty paying your housing and utilities. Encourage them to apply.

Look at the guidelines and information we have online to be able to guide them. But again, each situation is unique and might have factors that are best addressed directly to the application process. So I don't want to speculate without knowing, you know, all the facts and potentially discourage someone from applying.

But what I would say is I think the program's designed to be as flexible as possible and provide as deep a level of support as possible, knowing that there is such a high level of need in the community right now that we're seeing.

Okay. And for those that do benefit from this, I'm thinking in particularly people that are in a constant long term State of crisis, not having just suddenly lost federal income or something like that. Is this income used to calculate their General income and will it impact their other benefits? I know this goes direct to vendors.

It doesn't go to them to their own pocket. So is that somehow not counting as income?

Yeah. So because this is structured as a vendor payment will not go directly to participant, it goes to the landlord or the utility company. It's not counted as income towards a household and should not disqualify them from other benefit programs. That was something we were mindful of when our staff was putting this program together.

Great, thank you. I have some questions about the more long term. I hope that the government reopens and all this becomes moot. But for our longer term ones, for the people who will be experiencing the new rules for SNAP when they do their next recertification, let's say they had a certification.

Let's say it was just as recently as September or something. Does it go the full almost year to their next one or is it being sped up to be six months now?

So for most households, most households will recertify annually. There are some exceptions to that. For example, people experiencing homelessness have their recertifications every six months instead of every 12 but for most households it would be annually that you'd have the recertification interview.

I thought the renewal was every six months.

I, I believe that might be for the Medicaid work requirements for our program. There is what we call a smurf, a six month report form that some households do have to submit to us. But the assessment occurs during the interview, which occurs either during the initial application or during the annual recertification.

Again, I'll double check with my staff just to confirm this is correct and I'm getting the nodding of heads.

So thank you. Yeah, no, that is great news. I did obviously get confused with the Medicaid changes, so thank you for that. That's good news.

When you said, you know, one way to be exempted from the work requirement, even if they are in the right age group or they don't have a child under 14 at home, is being considered disabled. So what counts as being disabled?

So it again, it's a medically confirmed disability. So the key thing there is, is getting a note from their Doctor to confirm their disabling condition.

Could it be something like anxiety or.

I believe it includes both behavioral and physical disabling conditions. And again, the key point is getting that verification from the doctor.

Okay.

And this is something that you already do for other groups. So it's something that your office has a lot of experience with.

Correct. So this able bodied adult requirement has been a long standing requirement for the SNAP program and the OAA just expands it to these new populations that were not previously subject to these requirements.

And I know that there are some staffing issues. Will this additional work and dealing with people that are experiencing this for the first time and so they may not receive really know how to navigate possible job training or you might need to create more job training opportunities, things like that. Do you folks have the staffing for this?

You know, we continue to experience high vacancy rates across our division and particularly for our eligibility staff. However, I will note that we have been working to improve the efficiency of our services for the public.

One of the things I think that we had mentioned previously is we've done a lot of work sort of restructuring our staff response or call center, for example, and we've been able to significantly reduce the wait times there to allow us to serve more people. So we're looking at how we continue to improve efficiency.

There are resources, the Legislature provided that we're currently working on, seeing how we can deploy to support some of our have additional clerical support for our staff that will help ease that workload.

So we're looking at a number of different options, but yes, vacancies continue to be an issue, but we continue to actively recruit for all positions and we actually conduct interviews multiple times a week.

I wanted to congratulate you on the exemption. Was the request that narrow? Was it just for that one aspect of snap, the able bodied work requirement, or was it a more General request for an exemption?

The special exemption again only applies to Alaska and Hawaii and was very narrow to be specific to the able bodied adult work requirements. And again, it also had the condition that you have to be demonstrating a good faith effort to still move forward with the implementation.

So yes, that exemption was very narrow in nature, but we did want to make sure we pursued it to try and do everything we can to support our overall efforts to bring the error rate down and then, you know, also support our implementation of these changes.

Are there more questions? Sure.

So question. When the government does reopen and say it's after November 1st sometime and people will still have no SNAP benefits for, for some period of time, how long does it take for the the money to get onto their, their EBT card?

So that is something that we would need to wait for guidance from the USDA depending on how they want us to move forward when the shutdown ends. One thing that we understand is there's a very limited amount of EBT vendors nationally. There's two primary companies that do that service and they serve multiple states.

So one of the things that we understand is when the shutdown does end and benefits have to be restored for November, so those EBT vendors will need some time to issue those payments out because they also have to be issued in a certain order.

So that's something that we're continuing to try and get clarification on and work with our EBT vendor and what's the most efficient way. But we don't have a specific time frame yet. But it is something that we know that it's not likely, not something we're going to be able to restore the benefits immediately.

There probably will be a certain period of time that it takes and we're having ongoing conversations with our EBT vendor about that and also hoping that we'll get further clarification from USDA about specifically how that would be implemented.

So the Federal Government still specifies the implementation of those funds.

They likely will give some guidance on how that might be issued out once the shutdown ends. So our understanding is that the benefits are suspended until further notice and usually we would get instructions, some General guidelines on operationally, how the Department should carry it out once that suspension ends.

So that's one of the things that we'll be looking out for. In addition to that, having ongoing conversation with our EBT vendor about how best to prepare. And we know that we're not the only state in this boat.

This is something that every state across the country is dealing with right now and just trying to figure out what is the best way to implement and carry these, these directives out.

Okay, thank you. Other questions? Go ahead. One last question. For the people who are the able bodied adult work workers who are subject to the new requirements, what is the number, the aggregate number of the universe of people you think you folks are going to be having to re-certify, interview, assess who are going to be.

Entered into for newly subject. So it's difficult to determine. So we did run a query in our system specifically for the 55 to 64 and we know that there are 16,000 individuals in that age range. The caveat is those are just those individuals that are in that age range. It's not necessarily all people who are able bodied.

So I did want to provide that clarification because I think it's really key. And as far as the number of households with a dependent child age 14 or older, that's about 10,000 households. But again that's just the number of households who have a dependent child in that age range.

It's not necessarily all people who are able bodied that would necessarily be subject to this.

What about people experiencing homelessness and veterans and youth?

Unfortunately, our system, again because of its limitations, we're not able to run specific queries for those populations for the homeless, the veterans and the foster youth. And not even for the youth. No, there's a lot of limitations because our System is nearly 40 years old and it wasn't designed for some of this flexibility.

Any other questions? Okay, I have another question. So for the able bodied work, if somebody joins a job training program or works and then they finish that program or they lose that job, do they restart the three month period where they can continue to get benefits until, until they find another job or enter another qualified program.

So my, my understanding is that if household situation changes where they're no longer meeting the work participation, they're required to report that change to the Department, is that correct?

So that we would ask the households notify us of that change and then also want them to be aware of the other options available to them, such as being able to meet the requirement through volunteer hours and so on.

So yes, the understanding would be if their situation changes, they would again potentially be subject to losing their benefits if they have three months. Yes. Potentially subject to not being in compliance with the work requirements. I think our staff does sort of track that.

And again, if they're not in compliance like they're, they lose their employment or something happens, they would have to report that to us as a mandatory change.

But, but does then do they lose benefits immediately or do they get another three months to, to figure it out?

Does the clock reset? Yeah. I'm going to ask Scott if you can kind of help me answer that. I just want to make sure I don't misstate it.

Scott Nakasone, Assistant Division Administrator, regarding that question. So basically it's three months in a 36 month period. Right. And so when that particular action that you brought up, the example comes up, then we would need to look to see within that 36 month period how much they've received. Right.

And if, and if they did happen to receive the three months and now they're non compliant, then yeah, it could be possible that it could take effect the next month.

Okay. Okay, thank you very much. I did want to, I think you know this, but we do have dates held for a special session November 17th.

And I do understand that in order to use rainy day friends to help with this make up for those who do not have a dependent child and can't qualify for the TANF benefits, we would need to appropriate through a special session.

I just want to say that our House Human Service Committee is happy to do that if needed. I know you folks would have to work on how that could be distributed to those needing, you know, the households needing that help.

But we would really like you to work on that and we stand by to do our part and really appreciate all the effort that's going into helping immediately in all the different ways you can.

And I do look forward to working with you for next session to figuring out how we can strengthen the opportunities that will allow people who are required to work for the first time to meet those requirements in ways that they're capable of or to be diagnosed as disabled if that is this. You know that's the case.

So I really hope that you will continue to communicate with us as partners in this. All right, thank you. You know, you can see the interest. This never happens in interim that we get so many in attendance at an info briefing.

So you know that we really do care a lot about this issue and appreciate the work that you folks are doing and want to be active partners in it.

So thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

We are adjourned.