• Texas advances bill to require drug screening for welfare

    By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Texas lawmakers moved forward with a bill Tuesday that would require welfare applicants to be screened for drug use.


    The bill authored by State Senator Jane Nelson, the Republican chairwoman of the committee, was approved by the state senate’s Health and Human Services Committee.

    It would require applicants to the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program to undergo screening by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

    Under Nelson’s bill, applicants who appear to use drug or have been convicted for drug use will be subjected to testing. Applicants who test positive for drugs would be barred from receiving TANF funds for 12 months.

    “Drug abuse destroys families, harms children and prevents individuals from living healthy, independent lives,” Nelson said in a press release on Tuesday. “Because TANF is a direct cash assistance program, we have a responsibility to ensure that these funds are not being used to support a person’s drug habit.”

    Texas Governor Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst have thrown their support behind the bill.

    “Texas taxpayers will not subsidize or tolerate illegal drug abuse,” Perry said in a statement in November. “Every dollar that goes to someone who uses it inappropriately is a dollar that can’t go to a Texan who needs it for housing, child care or medicine.”

    One hundred thousand Texans a year are enrolled in TANF, according to Nelson’s office.

    The bill will go to the Texas House of Representatives if it passes a vote in the full Senate.

  • Tennessee lawmaker: Please test us for drugs

    By msnbc.com staff

    A Tennessee lawmaker says it may be time to start drug-testing members of the General Assembly.

    State Rep. G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis, told TV station WMC that lawmakers should have to take the same drug test if they impose one on welfare recipients.

    Hardaway said he has heard from his constituents.

    "They said to me, 'how do we know y'all aren't on drugs?'" Hardaway told WMC. "I thought, well, you don't."

    He said the voters had a valid point, and he plans to file his General Assembly drug test bill if the welfare drug test issue surfaces before lawmakers, which is likely.

    The second session of the 107th General Assembly will convene Jan. 10.

    State Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, who plans to file a drug-testing bill, says in his own blog last week that he "would have no problem with being tested myself."

    Opponents of the proposed bill say it will cost too much and would be illegal, but Campfield has said his bill will avoid the pitfalls of cost and legality and will result in the state saving a substantial amount of money, not spending more.

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