Georgia will not drug test food stamp recipients under a controversial new law that both federal and state officials concluded was illegal, the governor's office said on Friday.
The North Carolina state Senate voted Wednesday to overrule Gov. Pat McCreary's veto against testing applicants for public assistance for drugs and implement the policy anyway. According to the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina (ACLU-NC), the state House voted Tuesday to move forward with the tests, which will require some applicants to pay out of pocket for the tests before they can qualify for benefits.
Republican-led efforts to drug test all recipients of public assistance were dealt a possible death blow Tuesday by a federal appeals court when the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Florida's controversial 2011 law requiring all welfare recipients and applicants to undergo drug testing. According to the Colorlines blog, the court's decision also undermines a nearly identical law proposed by Georgia's Gov. Nathan Deal (R).
Georgia's Governor Nathan Deal has signed House Bill 861 into law, a controversial measure which will require drug testing of all applicants for public assistance, according to the Associated Press. The Social Responsibility and Accountability Act was passed by the state's deliberative bodies in votes that broke down along party lines, then signed by Governor Deal on Monday night.
Republicans have made headlines this year by demanding that people collecting unemployment benefits and public assistance be subject to drug testing. Now Iowa Republican state senator Mark Chelgren (Ottumwa) proposed Thursday that people who receive child support payments should also be drug tested if the person paying the support requests it, according to a report at Think Progress.
A bill proposed by one Indiana Republican has been withdrawn after its provision to drug test recipients of government largesse was widened to include lawmakers themselves, according to Arthur Delany at The Huffington Post.
