Both of these bills, introduced by Representative Hanes, are bills that would add more requirements for people to qualify to receive public benefits like SNAP and TANF. HB3 would require drug testing for SNAP and HB14 would require drug testing for TANF.
All three bills were pre-filed on January 10, 2019. HB3 was assigned to the Judiciary committee, while HB14 were assigned to the State Government committees. Neither have come up in committee yet.
ACLU of Alabama Comment
"Under federal guidelines, states are not permitted to drug test SNAP recipients or create additional conditions for eligibility. In addition to the unfounded and false stigmas this perpetuates, proponents are ignoring the enormous cost this will bring on our state. A similar policy in Florida spent significant amount of money to drug test but only found a small number of people who were affected, proving this as an ineffective means to reduce drug use. We oppose these bills because they are bad public health policies that will waste public resources and inflict more harm on those who just want to feed themselves and their families."
News
- 3/8/2019 - Alabama lawmaker proposes bill to drug test food stamp recipients [Fox 8]
- 1/27/2019 - Opinion: New bills take aim at welfare and cell phones [AL.com]
- 1/18/2019 - Bills could require drug testing for SNAP recipients [Montgomery Advertiser]
- 1/17/2019 - House bills would impose added requirements for benefit recipients [Selma Times Journal]
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