The following article by Bryce Covert was posted on the ThinkProgress.org website February 25, 2016:
Under current law, states aren’t allowed to require drug screening and testing for low-income people to enroll in the food stamps program (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP). That’s something Wisconsin, which is fighting the issue in court, and Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), who chairs the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee that administers SNAP, want to change. Aderholt has has unveiled a measure that would pave the way for states that want to add a drug testing requirement.
That didn’t fly with Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). At a subcommittee hearing on Wednesday,she questioned why drug testing would be limited to the SNAP program and not all others subsidized through the Department of Agriculture, such as farmers who get federal crop insurance and other federal subsidies. “If we’re going to look at drug testing for SNAP, we should take the entire Department of Agriculture and all those programs that provide federal subsidy to folks, and they ought to be drug tested as well,” she said. Continue reading “Congresswoman Asks Why Drug Tests Are Only Being Considered For Food Stamp Recipients, Not Farmers”