Florida Governor Rick Scott recently signed a law (HB 353) requiring the state’s welfare agency to perform drug screens on Temporary Care Assistance adult applicants as a condition of eligibility for benefits. Applicants who test positive cannot receive assistance for one year. If they re-apply after the year and test positive again, they are ineligible for three years. The applicant must pay for the test.
To protect the dependent children in these families, the department can designate a “protective payee” to receive money on the children’s behalf. Or the parent can choose an immediate family member to do this, who must also be tested for drugs.
The 2011 Missouri legislature has passed its own version of a drug screening bill. It makes work-eligible cash assistance recipients ineligible for two years from the date of an administrative hearing, unless the adult is referred to and successfully completes a substance abuse treatment program and does not test positive for illegal substances over time. Governor Nixon has until July 14 to sign or veto the measure. If he does not veto it, it becomes law.
Many other state legislatures proposed similar measures during in 2011.
Civil libertarians and others have challenged such laws as unconstitutional, claiming they amount to unreasonable searches and seizures. To date, no state has successfully imposed mandatory drug testing on welfare applicants. Michigan had such a law but it was struck down in 2003.
