Drug testing food stamp recipients doesn’t pay off, Bevin aide tells KY lawmakers
The Bevin Administration told Kentucky lawmakers Wednesday that drug testing people who apply for public benefits creates a “major expense for minimal results.”
The Cabinet for Health and Family Services has researched the issue and “we’ve not really found a whole lot of positive outcomes from it,” said Douglas Beard, director of the Division of Family Support for the Department of Community Based Services, which is the child welfare and social services arm of the cabinet.
“We feel like people who would need to benefit from the public assistance we provide would be hesitant to apply, knowing there would be this additional barrier,” Beard told the legislature’s Public Assistance Reform Task Force. “We think that impacts families, [and] that impacts children.”
The task force was formed earlier this year to reexamine the viability of House Bill 3, a Republican-backed bill that failed to earn support last session. It sought to overhaul Kentucky’s public benefits system by setting stricter parameters — including drug screenings and work requirements — on Kentuckians before they’re able to access certain social services, including Medicaid benefits, food stamps and money available for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.
Opponents of the bill have said its effects would be debilitating for the state’s most vulnerable residents, while proponents argue their aim is to help fewer people rely on public assistance.
The portion of the bill cabinet officials spoke to Wednesday seeks to institute drug screenings for anyone with a “felony or misdemeanor history of substance abuse” when they apply to receive food assistance. Applicants would be at risk of losing benefits if they tested positive, although exceptions would be granted to women who are pregnant or someone who is in a drug treatment recovery program.
This particular provision of the bill is aimed at encouraging people to seek treatment, said state Rep. David Meade, R-Stanford. Meade is co-chairman of the group and co-sponsor of the bill.
“It’s not about just kicking folks off assistance,” Meade said. “We want to try to help folks, to get them on a path to recovery.”
In September, 227,557 Kentuckians — roughly 4 percent of whom had a drug felony — got money through the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or the Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program (KTAP), according to state data presented Wednesday.
Under the current draft of the bill, individuals would have to pay the cost for their drug screening, which could range anywhere from $16 to $150, depending on the test, Beard said.
Since both SNAP and KTAP are federally funded, Kentucky would not recoup much in cost savings from preventing those with drug convictions from receiving assistance, Beard said. Meanwhile, the cost of the drug screenings, which carry an estimated administrative cost of $2.5 million to $3.4 million, would fall to the state.
Most adults seeking these benefits tend to self report any criminal history with substance use anyway, Beard said, making the drug tests largely redundant and a drain on state resources.
What’s more, such a step would counteract the mission of the Department for Community Based Services, DCBS legislative liaison Laura Begin said.
“Screening public assistance recipients creates a negative stigma around the concept of being poor,” she said.
“Identifying need is not the same as treating need,” she said. “We’ve identified the need but [requiring drug tests] aren’t really helping the family through that process.”
Amanda Hall, who is in recovery and spent time incarcerated for drug-related crimes, said she understands how important these benefits can be, as someone who once relied on them.
“There were times after incarceration that I needed public assistance to get me through. Sometimes you just need a little help, and these programs provided me that help,” said Hall, who is now the Smart on Crime field organizer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.
Requiring this population to front additional money for a drug test “would’ve made that struggle even harder,” she said, calling the proposed mandate, “ineffective, a waste of government resources and discriminatory.”
“If the commonwealth truly wants to combat this drug addiction problem, and I think they do, maybe resources would be best used for more programming,” Hall said.
The task force will begin working through the current draft of the bill in the next few weeks, Meade said after the meeting.
Speaking of the drug screening provision, he said, “I don’t know that it should stay,” but wouldn’t say definitively to what extent he thought it should be modified.
As chairman, he said, “My goal is to come to a conclusion that everyone feels is beneficial to these programs.”
By Alex Acquisto
Lexington Herald-Leader
Bevin and his people must be getting nervous
If you are too Lazy to work, then why should hard working people like myself, buy it for you. You can’t help those who Won’t help themselves!