Welfare Reform on Rosebud Reservation: Challenges for Tribal Policy

In 1996 Congress enacted the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, more commonly known as welfare reform. 1 Intended by its advocates to end "welfare as we know it," the act abolished Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), which had been adopted in 1935 and which was a so-called entitlement program in which benefits were provided on the basis of need. The welfare reform act specifically provided that it was not to be interpreted "to entitle any individual or family to assistance." 2 One of the key changes with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which replaced AFDC, is the requirement that a recipient "engage in work (as defined by the State)" in exchange for benefits. 3 As the South Dakota Department of Social Services (DSS) put it in 1997 when it instituted TANF: