Welfare reform offers a rare opportunity for the federal, state, and tribal governments to reshape how each conducts business with the other. This legislation has changed the national public welfare system dramatically, including the relationship between the federal, state, and tribal governments in administering public assistance programs. Welfare reform has provided the opportunity for tribal governments to become full partners with the federal and state governments in the historic effort to reform welfare. One of the basic goals of welfare reform is to enhance the control of local governments over public assistance programs. Welfare reform provides tribal governments, at their option, the opportunity to receive direct federal funding to independently design, administer, and operate public assistance programs that are important to tribal communities.
Welfare reform provides an opportunity for tribal governments to reclaim and exercise sovereignty.
Welfare reform provides an opportunity to break away from the status quo of dependency and paternalism. Welfare reform provides an opportunity for tribal governments to be equal partners with state and local governments. Indian tribes have been seeking this autonomy for decades. Notwithstanding the opportunities presented to tribes by welfare reform, Indian Country will be challenged if welfare reform is to be successful in tribal communities. While the legislation provides for federal dollars to tribes who opt to administer a tribal TANF program, it does not require states to provide their historic share of funding that tribal members received under the old AFDC program.