Orrin Hatch Calls For Drug Testing Welfare Recipients

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Congress

(Credit: AP)

Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, proposed yesterday that people seeking unemployment benefits or welfare undergo drug tests before they can receive benefits.

"Too many Americans are locked into a life of a dangerous dependency not only on drugs, but the federal assistance that serves to enable their addiction," Hatch said in announcing the proposal. "This amendment is a way to help people get off of drugs to become productive and healthy members of society, while ensuring that valuable taxpayer dollars aren't wasted."

The proposal comes in the form of an amendment to a bill now being considered to extend tax breaks and social programs; it mandates that if someone fails the drug test, "then states could enroll them in either a state or federal drug treatment program," according to a release from Hatch's office. It is not clear whether or not the person could face jail time.

Hatch suggests such a system would save money and reduce the deficit, presumably by virtue of withholding benefits from those who fail drug tests. His release does not address the costs of drug testing everyone receiving unemployment or welfare benefits or enrolling those who fail the test in treatment programs.

In its release, Hatch's office says that "drug abuse prevents many individuals from getting off of welfare and back to work" and notes that many private companies subject their employees to drug testing.

Some are welcoming the amendment: Utah State Rep. Carl Wimmer told the Salt Lake Tribune that it "is simply immoral for [those on public assistance] to use taxpayer dollars to fund their addiction."

Reason Magazine's Matt Welsh, meanwhile, laments what he calls the "flippant tramplings of our privacy rights" reflected in the proposal.

"If you are at all dependent on the state, whether by choice or force, and you don't have the good manners to be powerful, you will always stand the risk of being treated like a patient at a criminal asylum," he writes.

Hatch's proposal brings to mind a 2002 story from the satirical Onion newspaper entitled "Drugs Now Legal if User is Employed."

In it, a fictional DEA administrator says the following: "There's no point going after some cardiac surgeon who needs some speed to keep him sharp. That's not what the law was intended to prevent. But the more destructive drug users--the addict who spends his welfare money on crack, the guy in Harlem who smokes marijuana--that is something that we as a society must not tolerate."

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by bleykar February 7, 2011 1:13 PM EST: I am not here to say that everone that gets help from the state or the feds are ALL drugs users, but if you do uses drugs this is what i think. I thnk you should be held to a standerd of zero drugs at all that are not perscribed by a Doctor. not that i grew up in section eight housing but i have walked through it durring the day and i saw a lots of stuff that are used by drug and dealers and users all over the ground, cars that coust more then $20,000, with rims that are another $5000-$10,000 and my question is if you can afford all this then you dont need any help at all. now i can't afford any of this but i also make to much money to get on it. now i have a question if you dont have a job you first dont pay taxes, you dont have to get up and do anything all day and all year. but you get all this free money and what is you do for it. that is right you provide NOTHING for me or for anyone that pays for this. now i read about people say that this is a right to have this well if it is a right when do i get my free check? and if you think that this is envaded you privice you are wrong you are being provided a house by the gov and that meens it is not yours and it should have no drugs in at all. not in my book I have a right to know where my taxes go to and i see it going to for the most part drugs and the dealers. and if you are a convect then you all ready have less rights. i am not a reaces or appose to help people that need it but their is a big differnts in helping and doing it for someone. i dont that they should go as far as saying no cell phones or cable TV or any of that but I do feel that they should have to live to a standerd. and be held accountable for ones action. but if they cant thier rights should be modifide.; Reply to this comment


by BuffaloJJ January 30, 2011 6:02 PM EST: Liberalism is a mental disorder. Some of the people up here think so funny I don't know what else to say. Please put your drugs down as they are clouding your thinking. Your comments demonstrate this to be fact.; Reply to this comment


by mythhasapurpose January 26, 2011 3:04 PM EST: I have a hard time believing there is any statistical validity inherant in Mr. Hatch's assertions. First of all, unless the exchange is literally pennies to the dollar, why would anyone who has the money to buy food stamp benefits not just simply go buy food (especially given the restrictions on what the benefits can be used for)? Secondly, are there any studies or surveys showing what percentage of food stamp benefits get sold by what percentage of all food stamp recipients to support their drug habits? I would very much like to see the actual statistics that could possibly justify such a measure.; Reply to this comment


by protestrgov November 5, 2010 6:15 AM EDT: He is being misunderstood he is a wise man. What he is saying is, he wants everyone to TEST DRUGS.
The drug test is to insure that everyone one is ON DRUGS.
You see If everyone is all doped up, we are less likely to all charge the gates and throw those %*&(# es out on their &%$ like we should have already done!
Every generation has a ?Call to Duty? to maintain liberty. For my father John Brooks PFC 101st Airborne, he had to Get Up and go defeat the Axis Powers to preserve Freedom.
These are known as ?The Greatest Generation?. What is the threat to freedom in our generation? What is our call to duty?
The Axis power today is those spoiled little rich kids in Washington. They are on the brink of destroying the great experiment. And if we don?t stop the millionaire?s boys club before total disaster, take a guess what our generation will be known as?
?Dad was you part of the Greatest Generation??
?No son that was my Dads generation, my generation didn?t do anything so freedom died, that?s why we live under tyranny now. And all those that gave their lives for liberty, it was all in vain. That?s why we are known as the worst generation my son.?
I?m not going down like that, it?s time to bring back protesting!; Reply to this comment


by bronxriver73 September 24, 2010 9:27 AM EDT: To all you prohibitionists: What'cha gonna do when Marijuana is legalized in California this year? And, believe me, Proposition 19, as it is called, WILL PASS! Face reality, you've lost the war on drugs. Young people today are bigger potsmokers than we Baby-Boomers were in the 1960s and 1970s! When will you open your eyes and see the truth?; Reply to this comment

by sikapayinforcrak August 17, 2010 1:13 AM EDT

Dear Welfare Recipients... The world is going broke.. You have rode
the pony until he fell over. Paying for dope with welfare checks needs to stop... Shouldnt the fact you dont have to work make you happy enough to not do drugs? U just wait till that welfare check
comes and get all duped up.. Mr Orrin Hatch is a Hero,, My taxes Paying for your dope which in turn kills people makes me a murderer..

Reply to this comment


by bronxriver73 September 24, 2010 9:28 AM EDT: Orrin Hatch a hero? He's a Bible-banging prohibitionist lowlife.


by tfj-n-libos July 29, 2010 10:59 AM EDT: When a person enters a welfare or unemployment program, are they not signing a contract to receive compensation, just as an employee does with an employer? Most anyone in the workforce (blue collar especially) who is not self-employed is required, not randomly chosen, to submit to a urine drug test before any hiring paperwork is completed. This ensures that the employer's money, which is most often that of the shareholders as well, is invested in the growth of the company, and not a downfall due to employee error stemming from a drug habit of which was paid for with the employee's compensation (the employer's money), and would end up costing the employer more money on top of what is already paid to the employee, is avoided. Now think about it this way: The government, like an employer, and the taxpayers, like the shareholders, are invested in the citizens receiving compensation from welfare and unemployment - an employer-employee relationship. The goal here is to help these people get back on their feet by obtaining a job and becoming self-sufficient - this is like an employer's goal of a company's growth/success. If any one of these citizens were to use their welfare or unemployment compensation to feed a drug habit, the goal has not been reached and more money will have to be paid out since this person would not be able to obtain actual employment due to failure of a drug test or incompetency (consider this employee error). And just like an employer and it's shareholders, the government and taxpayers will end up spending more money on top of the wefare or unemployment compensation already paid to the citizen in order to support them for a longer period of time. If you have ever paid taxes, then you are a shareholder in the government's welfare and unemployment programs. Just becuase you may some day utilize the "company's" services, you are still a shareholder and are invested in the future of the "company." Would you want your investment to support a drug habit that will end up costing you more money? Just remember, when a government program runs out of money, up go the taxes.; Reply to this comment

by calandrasmommy July 19, 2010 11:29 PM EDT

for all of you against this!!!! i feel this is mandatory they are not calling us all drug abusers. what they are trying to do is weed out the abusers of the welfare system which the drug useres are the ones who are mostly on welfare due to they can not pass the drug test for jobs so they stay on it and make it harder for single mothers who are full time students and working to get any assistance.. i dont care who knows it i am a single mother trying to make a better life for me and my daughter and i can not get on food stamps because i dont work over 20 hours a week... i know another mother that i go to school with that cant afford a sitter she had to move back in with her parents and can not get assistance because shes a full time student the abusers of the welfare system need to be weeded out so the ones who are trying to better their lives and really need the assistance can get it.....

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by mythhasapurpose January 26, 2011 3:08 PM EST: What evidence do they have that this is a widespread issue of any meaningful importance?

by tigger143799 July 14, 2010 10:19 AM EDT

Look,
I don't see why it is so hard for people to understand? The right to drug testing has already been established through the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. All Orrin Hatch is proposing is that they actually start enforcing the state's right to random testing. For all of those that are up in arms about the testing I say this. This is optional. If you wish to receive funding, then you submit to testing. If you do not submit to the testing then you do not qualify, plain and simple. There is still an option you do or you don't. I figure, if you are not a substance abuser then why all the arguing? You pass your drug test, congratulations you get your funding.

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by bronxriver73 September 24, 2010 9:18 AM EDT: Obviously, you never smoked a joint in your life.

by Asfintit July 13, 2010 4:09 PM EDT

It is antiquated thinking like this, that keeps our country so far behind other countries. I wish Orrin Hatch could spend one of those "drugged filled" days with me while I search the internet for jobs, fill out 3-4 application per day, write thank you notes, rewrite website code, build new sites, and yes, settle down ...at night exhausted because my eyes hurt and head hurts so much. This man with his cropped hair, his blue suit, red tie and little american flag can scratch my "ever-loving" arse!

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by BuffaloJJ January 30, 2011 5:16 PM EST: Imagine us "antiquated" working people who go to work 5 days a week expecting welfare people to get drug tested before handing our money over to people who don't work. We are just so stuck in our old ideas.

If they can afford drugs they don't need as much money as they are getting. I highly doubt you are filling out 3-4 applications per day. If you are you must be applying for jobs you are unqualified for. Either that or they are drug testing you. Put down the drugs son. It will make you more employable.