A key Republican representative is pushing for a bill requiring drug testing for food stamps recipients.
Alabama Governor, Robert Aderholt revealed the measure on Feb. 11, Thursday, as Republicans rallied to uncover savings to fund the program.
Aderholt said the legislation wouldn’t necessarily be a mandate, with states opting to allow drug testing or not. He emphasized that creating drug programs where it is needed is common sense, and a “compassionate way to try and help these people who have issues,” ABC News quoted him as saying.
Aderholt is driving the “drug testing for food stamps” GOP legislation to support similar efforts in Wisconsin where fellow Republican representative, Scott Walker is seeking drug screening before issuing food stamps to low-income recipients.
Walker had earlier filed a lawsuit against a dissenting Agriculture Department which maintains federal law bars imposing a new standard of eligibility, particularly one as “intrusive and ineffective” as drug testing, Yahoo reported.
Aderholt, who chairs the Agriculture Department subcommittee that oversees its spending on the food stamp program, insists the legislation, if passed, would result in savings when it cuts benefits from recipients who test positive for illegal substances.
The legislation would also waive food stamps eligibility for people already enrolled for federal heating assistance, uncovering estimated savings of up to $1.2 billion, approximately half the amount allocated for drug treatment programs per state.
According to Aderholt, the Department of Agriculture’s food stamp program, currently named the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, has cost $74 billion in 2015 in food assistance for over 46 million Americans, an expenditure double that which the program spent in 2008, US News said.
Aderholt says his initiative to encourage the “drug testing for food stamps” legislation is just part of the GOP effort to revamp the food stamps program after the Republican’s failed 2013 push to cut the program’s annual budget by 5 percent via a bill proposing new work requirements as well as drug testing.
