Tribal/Native American
Employing and Moving People Off Welfare and Encouraging Responsibility (EMPOWER)—Navajo Reservation had the largest effects on long-term benefit receipt (decreasing the amount of public benefits received by $0 per year). EMPOWER—Navajo Reservation made several welfare reforms, including time-limit exemptions to participants’ cash assistance, extensions to child care and medical assistance, and mandatory job-training participation for teen parents, to encourage Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients to find work and become self-sufficient.
Decrease long-term benefit receipt
EMPOWER—Navajo Reservation was one of the demonstration projects made possible by Section 1115 waivers to the rules in effect at the time for the AFDC program. These Section 1115 waivers allowed states to test new approaches to advance the objectives of the AFDC program.
