Texas bill would require drug test for benefits

[TexasTowelie]

AUSTIN, Texas —

Wendy Davis was 18 and pregnant when she lost her job at Dresser Industries in Dallas. To pay the bills, she did what many laid-off workers do: She collected unemployment benefits for a few months.

Thirty years later, state Sen. Wendy Davis, now a Harvard-educated Democrat representing Tarrant County, on Wednesday spoke against a proposal to target laid-off workers with government-sponsored drug tests.

"I've been on unemployment," Davis said in a nine-minute confrontation with the bill's sponsor, Sen. Tommy Williams, during a hearing in the Senate Economic Development Committee. "I just can't imagine, Sen. Williams, what it would have felt like for me to have been subjected during that period of time to a drug test simply because I was on unemployment benefits."

Williams, a Republican from the Woodlands, described his proposal as a way to help the state maintain a competent workforce.

More at http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/labor/bill-would-require-drug-test-for-benefits/nWqYM/ .

[Ilsa]

1. Are they too stupid to read

about the wasted money on testing in Florida, or do they just think every unemployed person in Texas is on drugs?

[DhhD]

2. What a bag of nuts to even consider something so stupid and wasteful of taxpayer money.

Who owns these Labs that all this work and therefore state money, will go to?

[tech3149]

3. seriouisly, the realy don't care

The primary targets of these laws are those who would gain the least. If you're a typical wage slave that gets a buzzthat is mostly harmless but could be a quick and easy prosecution, "you're toast" would define your position.

If you've got personal ties to the local community it might be you can buy a mea culpa and get a pass.
Most of us are the shit under the boot and it doesn't matter how loud we scream.