Transparency Demands Grow As Texas Aid Program Fails To Track Millions In Funding

Recently, ProPublica and CBS News found that a Texas program to aid low-income families after the abortion ban was opaque and didn’t have any mechanism of accountability, now people are calling for transparency.

The investigation found that the state-run program Thriving Texas Families is funneling millions of dollars into nonprofits without tracking whether these funds are being used as intended. For example, nonprofits can bill the state $14 for handing out a couple of diapers or a single pamphlet, even though they might obtain these diapers for free from diaper banks. One nonprofit received $3.5 million but spent less than $1 million on services, with over $2 million added to its assets, mostly in cash. This lack of transparency means taxpayers cannot be sure how the money is spent.

The Dallas Morning News, in an op-ed, wrote that lawmakers must prioritize the creation of mechanisms to know where taxpayer money is going and if the nonprofits are using it correctly.

State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, told the News that the legislation she authored, which rebranded the program as Thriving Texas Families, added more oversight than before. This legislation mandates that the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) spend no more than 3% of program funds on administrative costs and hire a third party to evaluate program effectiveness. Kolkhorst mentioned that the HHSC would fully implement the law, including its oversight provisions, by 2025.

However, the program’s most recent fiscal report did not detail expenditures on baby items like formula, focusing instead on outreach outcomes such as advertising campaigns and pamphlet distribution.

ProPublica and CBS reported that the program’s funding skyrocketed since Texas passed the six.week abortion ban in 2021. When the programs started in 2005 it had a budget of $5 million, and now it has reached over $140 million.

The News stated that following this increase in funding, lawmakers must make sure the money is benign used to genuinely support low-income families by implementing measures to track and verify the use of these funds.