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| State Rep Julia Hurley (R-Lenoir City) |
Tennessee lawmakers are revising a bill that would require welfare recipients to take drug tests in an attempt to improve its chances of holding up in court.
The bill's sponsors are working to limit the circumstances in which applicants for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families would have to submit to a drug test following two opinions from the state attorney general that across-the-board testing would not stand up to a court challenge.
Any drug testing requirement probably still would trigger a lawsuit. But Gov. Bill Haslam's administration and some Democrats say they may come around to support the measure if testing is limited to cases in which case workers have a reasonable suspicion that an applicant uses drugs.
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| State Rep Jeanne Richardson (D-Memphis) |
The House Health and Human Resources Committee passed the drug testing measure, House Bill 2725, on an 11-6 vote that largely followed party lines, with Republicans in the majority.
The vote came after the bill was amended to require testing only in instances when a recipient has been arrested or convicted of a drug or alcohol-related offense, fails a psychological test for substance abuse, fails a different drug test or is involved in an employment-related accident.
The amendment - filed by Rep. Jeanne Richardson, D-Memphis, an opponent of the original bill - responds to a pair of opinions fromAttorney General Robert Cooper that said drug tests likely would be found unconstitutional. The opinions were based on a 2003 federal court decision in Michigan that said drug tests for welfare recipients violate the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches.
The bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Julie Hurley of Lenoir City, said limiting the drug tests will solve the constitutional problems that struck down the Michigan law and have bogged down a more recent effort to test welfare recipients in Florida.
"I think this is a really good step forward," she said.
Officials from the Department of Human Services, which administers Tennessee's welfare program, said the Haslam administration might back the bill if the scope of tests were limited.
The vote by the health committee removed one major hurdle to the bill, but it still faces several challenges.
The bill still has to be approved by the House Finance Committee, which will review its financial impact. Running a drug testing program for welfare recipients would cost the state about $400,000 a year, according to an analysis by legislative staffers.
The state would save nearly $1.8 million a year by withdrawing benefits from people who fail the drug test, staffers say, but that assumes the courts allow the DHS to do so. Fighting for the law in court would cost the state at least $100,000, staffers say.
"There's no question that this bill is unconstitutional, ineffective and a waste of taxpayer dollars," said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee. "The bill denies the right to privacy and due process based solely on an individual's socioeconomic status. The socioeconomic status seems to be what's driving this bill and it's unacceptable."
Financial estimates assume that applicants for welfare would pay for the tests, which cost about $30 each. The law calls for those who fail the test to take it again, also at their expense, to confirm the finding.
Bill Russell, general counsel for DHS, said those tests would be a substantial burden for welfare recipients getting only about $142 a month.
The bill states that people who fail drug tests would be able to restart their benefits after six months if they complete a substance-abuse program and pass two more tests.
Richardson indicated that she could support a narrow testing requirement, on the belief that it could help people with drug problems receive treatment.
"I was very, very concerned about this bill because there's not much evidence that TANF recipients use illegal drugs more than anybody else does," she said. "This could be used therapeutically to talk to a person and get them into a treatment program."
Still, Democratic support for even a limited-testing bill seems far from assured. Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner, D-Old Hickory, said it is unfair to test welfare recipients but not other people who get government aid.
"We give subsidies to farmers. We're not drug testing farmers in this state," he said. "We give subsidies to veterans. We don't drug test veterans in this state. ... We're testing the poorest of the poor in this state."
Hurley, however, said testing welfare recipients enjoys widespread support.
"This is a fair bill," she said. "Eighty-five percent of the people in my district asked for this bill. ... This polls statewide at over 72 percent. This is apparently a concern not only my constituents have and have asked me to bring, (but) that the state of Tennessee's constituents and voters have."
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