Opinion ID: 1670253
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Personal Responsibility & Work Opportunity Act

Text: MFIP is Minnesota's response to the Personal Responsibility & Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), which created Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a federal block grant program replacing the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. Pub.L. No. 104-193, 110 Stat. 2105 (1996) (codified as amended in scattered sections of 42 U.S.C.). PRWORA made sweeping changes to federal welfare policy by promoting job preparation, work, and marriage, 42 U.S.C. § 601(a) (2000), and by imposing a 60-month lifetime limit on assistance, 42 U.S.C. § 608(a)(7) (2000). PRWORA was intended to increase the flexibility of States in operating welfare programs by shifting responsibility for the administration of the programs to the states. 42 U.S.C. § 601(a). State TANF programs are funded with both state and federal money. The TANF block grant from the federal government has an annual cost-sharing requirement for states. 42 U.S.C. § 603 (2000). States must spend the money to help eligible families in ways consistent with the TANF program. See id. ; 42 U.S.C. §§ 604, 607-08 (2000). [1] Under PRWORA, federally recognized Indian tribes are eligible to create and administer their own TANF programs. 42 U.S.C. § 612 (2000). If a tribal plan is approved by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the tribe receives federal funds out of the state's federal TANF block grant allocation. 42 U.S.C. § 612(a)(1)(A). Like states, tribes may use their TANF funding in any manner reasonably calculated to accomplish the purposes of TANF, but tribal TANF programs have more flexibility. See 42 U.S.C. § 612(a)(3)(C)(ii). Tribes generally are allowed to determine their own TANF eligibility criteria, work participation requirements, benefit standards, service populations, and sanctions for noncompliance. U.S. Gen. Accounting Office, Welfare Reform: Tribal TANF Allows Flexibility to Tailor Programs, but Conditions on Reservation Make It Difficult to Move Recipients into Jobs 5, 24-31 (2002). PRWORA broke new ground by providing federally recognized Indian tribes with the opportunity to create and administer their own welfare programs. Under AFDC, tribal members had to enroll in state welfare programs. U.S. Gen. Accounting Office, supra, at 4. Some tribal organizations heralded PRWORA as the United States Government's strongest recognition yet of Indian sovereignty. Pam Belluck, Tribes' New Power Over Welfare May Come at Too High a Price, N.Y. Times, Sept. 9, 1997, at A1. PRWORA does not require states to contribute money or other support to tribal programs in their states. As a result, many tribes, including the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, have not set up their own TANF programs. Id. [2] PRWORA ensures, nonetheless, that states provide assistance to tribal members who are not eligible to participate in a tribal TANF program. See 42 U.S.C. § 602(a)(5) (2000) (requiring states to provide each member of an Indian tribe, who is not eligible for assistance under a tribal TANF program, with equitable access to assistance under the State program).