(MI) State House OKs welfare drug-testing proposal

[Bozita]

Source: AP

June 7, 2012 at 7:22 pm
State House OKs welfare drug-testing proposal
By Associated Press


Lansing— Some Michigan welfare applicants and recipients would be required to pass drug tests under legislation approved by the Michigan House. Lawmakers passed the measure Thursday by a 71-37 vote. It now moves to the Senate.

The legislation would require the Department of Human Services to establish a program of suspicion-based substance abuse screening and testing for Family Independence Program applicants and recipients who are at least 18 years old. The program would start as a pilot program in January and expand statewide by 2015.

Grandville Republican Rep. David Agema and other supporters say job applicants and workers often are required to pass drug tests.

Detroit Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib calls the measure punitive and political. She wrote a rejected amendment also requiring lawmakers to be drug-tested.


Read more: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120607/POLITICS02/206070498#ixzz1xAUmQKzP

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Now that the whole Walker/Wisconsin thing has been decided, it's time for the GOPers in other states to press on.

[Angry Dragon]

1. I agree ........ drug test all politicians for drugs and alcohol

every day that they are in session

[cstanleytech]

3. I suspect most of them would fail the alcohol testing

[cstanleytech]

2. Is this program really going to be cost effective? I mean the testing isnt free is it? So really

whats the point of it?

[Bozita]

4. FL Gov. Scott tried this trick. He *sold* his drug testing corp to his wife.

Clean welfare recipients had their testing fees paid by the state of FL.

Those who failed had to pay.

And here's what happened:



Florida didn't save money by drug testing welfare recipients, data shows
By Brittany Alana Davis, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
In Print: Thursday, April 19, 2012

TALLAHASSEE — Required drug tests for people seeking welfare benefits ended up costing taxpayers more than it saved and failed to curb the number of prospective applicants, data used against the state in an ongoing legal battle shows.

The findings — that only 108 of the 4,086 people who took a drug test failed — are additional ammunition for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which sued the state and won a temporary ban on the drug-testing program in October, said ACLU spokesman Derek Newton.

Attorneys for the state immediately appealed the ban, and will face off against the ACLU again at the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta and the U.S. District Court in Orlando in coming months.

more...
http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/florida-didnt-save-money-by-drug-testing-welfare-recipients-data-shows/1225721

[alp227]

5. So Gov. Snyder probably has some stock in drug testing corporations,

or some of the legislators are passing this bill in exchange for campaign contributions, never mind how drug tests for welfare are a BIGGER waste of money than welfare (in the eyes of Randites) allegedly is.

[cstanleytech]

6. I'm surprised that they didnt got after the Gov for ethical violations if he

sold that business to his wife as it would appear offhand to be a huge conflict of interests.