Sen. Hatch Wants Welfare Recipients Drug Tested

Jobless people seeking unemployment benefits or welfare should be required to undergo mandatory drug testing, according to a new proposal by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), CBS News reported June 16. 

Hatch is seeking to amend a tax-breaks and social-programs bill to allow the government to withhold aid to persons who fail drug tests, though he suggested that states could enroll offenders in drug-treatment programs. 

Exempting drug users from government assistance would cut the federal budget and reduce the deficit, said Hatch.

“[The 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,” he said. 

Reason magazine’s Matt Welsh, meanwhile characterized, the proposal as the “flippant tramplings of our privacy rights.”