Drug testing of welfare recipients bill reaches Alabama House


MAY 7, 2013

BY: HANK RICHARDS

Voters have seen their State Senate pass bills reforming the way that the welfare system works in Alabama. Two specific bills are intended to protect the taxpayers who fund the programs and to make sure that the taxpayer money is used for needy families and on necessities for those families.

Senate Bill 7, prohibits the spending of welfare benefits, specifically Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), on liquor, tobacco, casinos and strip clubs. Ten other states have passed a similar law.

In a note to the Examiner, the Alabama GOPimplied that "hard-working Alabamians who pay taxes that support programs like TANFexpect that the money will be put to a good use. In some cases, irresponsible individuals have wasted those dollars and ignored the needs of their families.

This bill not only protects the taxpayers who fund the programs, but it also protects the families, specifically children, who are in need."

Senate Bill 191 requires drug testing of welfare recipients who have drug convictions in their past.

The bill is meant to identify drug users on welfare for three reasons.

Says Bill Armistead, Chairman of the Alabama GOP, "these bills are especially important because they aim to protect the integrity of the programs that are currently in place, as well as to encourage behavior in recipients that will take themselves off of welfare permanently. They represent plain common sense."

Both bills have passed through the Senate and are pending action in the State House.

To protect the trust of the taxpayers

To make sure that the welfare benefits are used for needs and not given to support someone’s addiction

To identify people who are on drugs, in order to help them break their addiction to substances

http://www.examiner.com/article/drug...-alabama-house