TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Mar 17, 2020

Gov. Bill Lee today said his administration will provide a series of relief opportunities for state residents, the Tennessean reports. Those opportunities include increased cash benefits for low-income families, relaxing requirements to collect unemployment checks and grants for local governments. Lee plans to pull funds from the reserves of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) fund, which currently contains $730 million. Lee’s administration faced criticisms in October for allowing the reserve to reach that number when its funds were meant to assist poor working families. The TANF program will begin issuing payments of up to $1,000 a month for a qualifying family of five that has lost employment as a result of the COVID-19 virus.