However, many recipients who have left welfare earn inadequate wages to support their families or have dropped off the rolls without work. Under the final federal welfare rules issued in April 1999, states were given increased flexibility in their use of funds to help low-income families in ways other than cash assistance. After three years of welfare reform, families in many states will he reaching time limits for receipt of cash assistance, which may bring into focus the unmet employment needs of families as Congress moves toward reauthorization of the welfare reform law. Given that states have substantial federal and state funds available to invest in needy families and limited time to help them move into work and self-sufficiency, all interested stakeholders look to reauthorization as a means to complete what welfare reform started. Many families receiving TANE payments were required to work as a condition of receiving assistance.
Tribes also have the option of allowing states to continue providing services to tribal families.
The NEW program was designed for tribes to promote work activities, to provide services supporting participation in work activities, and to create and expand employment opportunities if possible. Welfare reform provided states and tribes with flexibility in designing and implementing innovative approaches to meet the needs of families within their own unique settings, moving them to work and self-sufficiency. Under P.L.104-193, administration of welfare policy devolved to the states and tribes, limiting the federal government s regulatory enforcement role, but allowing the federal government to track state and tribal TANF performance data. Tribes that run their own TANF or NEW programs have discretion in defining eligibility, benefits, services, and policy to move recipients to self-sufficiency. Tribes may also enter into partnerships with states to provide American Indian families with necessary support services such as child care and child support enforcement.