Navajo Nation v. Department of Health & Human Services, Secretary

This appeal focuses on the interplay between two federal statutes: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (“TANF”) and the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (“ISDEAA”). The specific question we address is whether an Indian tribe may administer TANF, a welfare grant program, through a self-determination contract under the IS-DEAA. Like the district court, we conclude that TANF does not qualify as a contractable program under the ISDEAA.

BackgrouNd

Until recently, the federal government played a dominant role in administering welfare. Although states made many determinations about their own programs, welfare oversight and funding were centralized in the hands of the federal government from the mid-1980s to the late 1970s. During the 1980s, however, the federal government began to decrease its direct involvement in welfare, simultaneously granting states more latitude in their programs and reducing both eligibility for and the scope of benefits.

The federal government initiated its most dramatic break with the past — “ending welfare as we know it” — when Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996…