Oklahoma Senator Introduces TANF Drug Testing Bill

At the risk of sounding too cliché... it's about damn time!

If you're like the majority of employees both in Oklahoma and throughout the United States, your employer likely subjects you to drug testing as a condition of your employment.  As it stands right now, if you are on welfare you are not required to submit to a drug test.  While I am all for freedom of choice as to whether someone wants to shoot their veins or snort coke, I'd much rather not be paying for it out of my taxes.

Senator Anthony Sykes has introduced a bill in the Oklahoma Senate to require all applicants and recipients of assistance through the state's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to submit to regular drug testing by the Department of Human Services.  The bill is introduced as an amendment to 56 OS 2001, Section 230.52, adding the following paragraph:

The Department of Human Services shall establish a program of drug testing for those persons applying for or receiving assistance pursuant to the TANF program. Those persons refusing to submit to the drug test, or having a confirmed positive drug test, shall not be eligible to receive assistance;

That last paragraph is key.  Those persons refusing to submit to the drug test, or having a confirmed positive drug test, shall not be eligible to receive assistance.

The complete bill is attached to this post so that you can read exactly what the entire section says, but so far the above excerpt is the only change to the law.  Sykes is considering other amendments to his bill, so this may change by the time it actually gets through committee and to the floor.