More than 820 agencies and providers are waiting on a total of $168 million in payments from the state’s Department of Human Services.

When proposing a budget of more than $4 billion for the coming fiscal year, acting DHS Secretary James Dimas told a Senate committee that the department has more than 1,000 community service agreement contracts with 826 agencies and providers. Democratic state Sen. Daniel Biss questioned the fairness of the agreements.

Dimas said the agreements include an upfront understanding vendors won’t get paid until a budget for the current fiscal year is passed.

Dimas said he hopes lawmakers will help him keep his promise to make the agencies whole by passing a budget for the current fiscal year.