(Grey Information/AP) – Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame quarterback Brett Favre informed Congress Tuesday he was just lately recognized with Parkinson’s illness.
Favre made the admission throughout his opening statements on the Home Methods and Means Committee listening to in Washington.
The committee is inspecting how states are falling brief on utilizing welfare to assist households in want.
Clips of the admission have been posted by a number of media retailers on the social media platform X.
The retired quarterback has repaid simply over $1 million in talking charges funded by a welfare program in Mississippi.
Favre will take questions “per the standard witness coverage,” committee spokesperson J.P. Freire mentioned.
It’s unclear how a lot Favre may say as a result of a Mississippi choose in 2023 put a gag order on him and others being sued by the state.
Mississippi has ranked among the many poorest states within the U.S. for many years, however solely a fraction of its federal welfare cash has been going to households. As a substitute, the Mississippi Division of Human Providers allowed well-connected folks to waste tens of hundreds of thousands of welfare {dollars} from 2016 to 2019, in line with Mississippi Auditor Shad White and state and federal prosecutors.
Favre just isn’t dealing with any legal fees, however he’s amongst greater than three dozen defendants in a civil lawsuit the state filed in 2022. The swimsuit calls for reimbursement of cash that was misspent by means of TANF.
White, a Republican, mentioned in 2020 that Favre had improperly acquired $1.1 million in talking charges from a nonprofit group that spent welfare cash with approval from the state Division of Human Providers. White mentioned Favre didn’t present up for the speeches. Though Favre repaid the $1.1 million, he nonetheless owes practically $730,000 in curiosity, White mentioned.
The TANF cash was to go towards a volleyball enviornment on the College of Southern Mississippi. Favre agreed to guide fundraising efforts for the ability at his alma mater, the place his daughter began taking part in on the volleyball group in 2017.
A nonprofit group known as the Mississippi Neighborhood Training Middle made two funds of welfare cash to Favre Enterprises, the athlete’s enterprise: $500,000 in December 2017 and $600,000 in June 2018.
Court docket data present that on Dec. 27, 2017, Favre texted the middle’s director, Nancy New: “Nancy Santa got here at present and dropped some cash off (two smiling emojis) thanks my goodness thanks.”
“Sure he did,” New responded. “He felt you had been fairly good this yr!”
New pleaded responsible in April 2022 to fees of misspending welfare cash, as did her son Zachary New, who helped run the nonprofit. They await sentencing and have agreed to testify towards others.
Favre mentioned he didn’t know the funds he acquired got here from welfare funds and famous his charity had supplied hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to poor children in his house state of Mississippi and Wisconsin, the place he performed most of his profession with the Inexperienced Bay Packers.
Punchbowl Information was first to report about Favre’s look earlier than the Methods and Means Committee.
Copyright 2024 Grey Native Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The Related Press contributed to this report.