Blog Posts > Still Concerns over Welfare Drug Testing Bill
March 4, 2016

Still Concerns over Welfare Drug Testing Bill

WDTV – Friday morning at a public hearing before the House Judiciary Committee many spoke out against a bill that passed in the Senate around a month ago. Read/Watch

That bill is Senate Bill Six, which would require drug testing for some welfare recipients.

The bill spells out a program that when there’s “reasonable suspicion” that an applicant may be using drugs they would be subjected to a test. A person would only lose their benefits after they failed the test for the third time.

One person we spoke to from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy says this isn’t reasonable.

“Simply, it’s a bad policy,” said Sean O’Leary a Policy Analyst with the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. “It doesn’t achieve the goal that it sets our to achieve and it’s really based on stereotypes and punishing the poor more than it’s based on any sorts of facts or evidence.”

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