Authority: Title 2.2, Chapter 54; Title 63.1, Chapters 1 and 6, Code of Virginia; Title VI, Subtitle B, P.L. 97-35, as amended; P.L. 103-252, as amended; P.L. 104-193, as amended, Federal Code.

A.1. All increased state or federal funds distributed to Community Action Agencies shall be distributed as follows:

The funds shall be distributed to all local Community Action Agencies according to the Department of Social Services' funding formula (75 percent based on low-income population, 20 percent based on number of jurisdictions served, and five percent based on square mileage served), adjusted to ensure that no agency receives less than 1.5 percent of any increase.

2. Out of this appropriation, $250,000 the first year and $250,000 the second year from the general fund federal TANF grant shall be provided for expansion of community action services into the following previously unserved local jurisdictions: the City of Petersburg (to be served by the Richmond Community Action Program); the Counties of Nottoway, Lunenburg, and Charlotte (by the Central Piedmont Action Council); the County of Orange (by the Skyline Community Action Program); the County of Brunswick (by the Sussex-Surry-Greensville Improvement Association); the County of Campbell (by the Lynchburg Community Action Group); and the County of Lee (by the Rural Areas Development Association, Inc.).

B. The Department shall continue to fund from this Item all Community Action Agencies funded in Item 463 of Chapter 853 of the 1995 Acts of Assembly.

C. The toll-free telephone hotline operated by the Department of Social Services to receive child abuse and neglect complaints shall also be publicized and used by the Department to receive complaints of adult abuse and neglect.

D. Out of the appropriation for State Administration of Financial Assistance for Standards of Living Services, $1,370,363 the first year and $162,035 the second year from the general fund is appropriated to meet the Food Stamp reinvestment requirement of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These amounts are attributable to the error rates for federal fiscal years through 2000.

E. Out of this appropriation, $250,000 the first year and $250,000 the second year from the federal TANF grant shall be provided by the Department to support the expansion of services provided by food banks. The Department shall issue a Request for Proposals specifying that these funds shall be used only for the expansion of services and shall not to be used to supplant funds that support existing programs.

F. 1. The State Board of Social Services shall adopt necessary regulations by which local boards of social services may request changes in their locality grouping, which is used to determine the amount of payment for the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. The State Board shall establish criteria by which all such requests will be evaluated. Such criteria shall include, but not be limited to, (i) a comparison of shelter costs in the petitioning locality with the shelter costs in adjacent localities; (ii) assuring that the Department of Social Services has the funding available to make any increased payments which result from the change before the approval of any request; and (iii) assuring that the locality has sufficient funding to cover any increased costs that may result from a change in locality grouping in the General Relief program. The State Board shall establish regulations that specify the criteria that will be used in evaluating local board requests within 280 days of the effective date of this act.

2. If the State Board approves a local board's request to be reclassified into a locality grouping with lower standards of assistance, (i) such reclassification shall be limited to the TANF and General Relief programs and (ii) the State Board may require that such reclassification be phased in by providing that eligibility and the amount of benefits in cases open at the time of such reclassification shall continue to be determined using the standards in effect in the former locality grouping at the time of the reclassification.

3. The provisions contained in paragraphs F 1 and F 2 shall not apply to the determination of eligibility for medically needy individuals in the Medicaid program.