WASHINGTON -- Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) is moving forward with a
plan to make some welfare recipients take drug tests if they want cash
benefits, The Associated Press reported this week.
LePage
is one of several Republican governors who has recently pushed drug
tests for safety net programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker (R) wants testing as a condition for nutrition
assistance.
Georgia tried to implement a food stamp drug testing
law last year, but federal law allows testing only for TANF benefits.
The state backed down after the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which
oversees food stamps, let state officials know breaking the rules could
cost them administrative funding from the federal government. Walker has
pushed ahead anyway, saying he wants to fight the federal government on
it.
LePage first announced the drug tests in 2014.
"We must ensure that our tax dollars do not enable the continuation of a drug addiction," LePage said last year.
The
scheme, which at the time still had to go through a rule-making
process, was originally approved by the Maine Legislature in 2011, a
time when statehouse Republicans across the country were making similar
moves.
Only convicted felons would have to submit to tests, a
narrow targeting that makes Maine's measure less vulnerable to legal
challenge from civil liberties advocates.
Florida's 2011 drug testing
program, which forced all applicants to pee in cups, was halted by a
federal judge, a decision that has been repeatedly upheld on appeal.
In Florida and other places were testing has been implemented, very few applicants' results have turned up positive for drug use.
I don't think I would like it very much if I had to be drug tested in order to receive my Social Security benefits, would you?
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