Georgia Delays Use of Drug Tests for Welfare Recipients

A law that requires Georgia welfare recipients to pass a drug test -- and pay the cost of the test themselves -- went into effect Tuesday, but state officials have delayed enforcing the legislation while the issue is sorted out in federal court.

Gov. Nathan Deal approved and still supports the law, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But Brian Robinson, a spokesman for Deal, told AJC Tuesday the law will not be implemented until a federal appeals court rules in a related Florida case.

“Governor Deal signed the bill because he believes taxpayers who foot the bill for these programs should have some assurance that the recipients are work-ready, and that taxpayers don’t have the responsibility to fund a lifestyle that makes you unemployable,” Robinson told AJC.

Florida’s law requires welfare recipients to “submit to (and pay for) drug testing as a precondition of receiving benefits,” according to The Atlantic.

Georgia’s proposed law in 2012 was very similar to Florida’s, AJC reports. So when Florida received flack for the new law, Georgia revised its version of the bill this year, adding a screening requirement for reasonable suspicion. With the revision in the law, Florida’s case may no longer be relevant to Georgia.

But the delay and wait for Florida’s case is supposed to ensure Georgia will not have to waste money on its own legal fight as lawyers from the Southern Center for Human Rights are gearing up for a legal battle against the law, AJC reports.

“People are already struggling when they go to apply for (welfare),” Linda Lowe, who lobbied against the bill on behalf of Families First, told AJC. “Having to come up with the money for a drug test and not get reimbursed is a special problem. They’re already in desperate straits.”

>> Read the full story on AJC.com.