House Approves Controversial Food Stamp and Welfare Drug Testing Bill

March 4th, 2014

State lawmakers are considering adding drug tests to the process of applying to and receiving food stamp and welfare benefits. That’s despite past legal issues over similar legislation.

House Bill 772 calls for welfare and food stamp applicants and recipients to take drug tests if a state case worker has a “reasonable suspicion” the person is using drugs.

The House approved the bill by a vote of 107-66 at the tail end of Crossover Day on Monday. It now moves to the Senate for consideration.

Prior to Monday’s vote, a skeptical Democrat on the House floor asked bill sponsor Greg Morris, R-Vidalia, to define reasonable suspicion. Morris said essentially you know it when you see it.

“If I’m at a Quickie store and it’s 11:30 at night and a 30-year-old TransAm pulls up with hubcaps missing and a guy gets out with sunglasses on, and goes to buy three frozen burritos…I’m reasonably suspecting he’s high,” said Morris.

Democrats raised Fourth Amendment concerns of illegal search and seizure. In 2012, state lawmakers passed similar legislation that required drug testing for all welfare recipients, but court decisions have kept it from being implemented.

Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur said the latest proposal ignores decades of court rulings and inevitably would be overturned.

“There is a one hundred percent chance it will be challenged in court and a one hundred percent chance that it cannot be sustained by any court,” said Oliver.

Oliver said taxpayer funds would be wasted on related legal fees.