Republican leaders say they will reject a drug testing requirement when they consider food stamp legislation this week, a dramatic change in position that’s mostly a response to the nation’s opioid epidemic.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway said he’ll vote against any drug testing amendment to the Agriculture and Nutrition Act, otherwise known as the Farm Bill, which is set for committee markup Wednesday.
“Given the heightened awareness today of the opioid crisis in this country as well as other drug addictions, punishing people at this point in time when we are working to get them off these programs may be counterproductive,” Conaway said.
Conaway’s announcement counters an expected move by the Trump administration to give states more authority to require drug testing for food stamps.
Using drug testing as a way to decide eligibility for welfare benefits is currently prohibited, but 15 states have challenged the law and have passed their own legislation requiring drug screening for people seeking public assistance, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The Trump administration plan would allow states to require drug testing for certain able-bodied people without children.
Whlie some Republicans have supported that kind of idea, the GOP-led Congress is now at odds with Trump on the matter. Despite including in the farm bill legislation bolstering a federal work requirement for some able-bodied food stamp recipients, Conaway wants to steer clear of adding a drug testing requirement.
Lawmakers in both parties consider the opioid addiction epidemic one of the most serious problems the country faces.
Congress has spent part of the past three years passing legislation to fund state-level opioid addiction programs.
The Centers for Disease Control last month said 63,632 people in the United States died of drug overdoses in 2016, and nearly two-thirds of them involved a prescription or illicit opioid.
The CDC, in the same report, found drug overdoses are “spreading geographically and increasing across demographic groups.”
The crisis has spurred rare bipartisan action.
The fiscal year 2018 spending bill passed in March included $4 billion to battle the problem. The Republican-led House and Senate in 2016 also passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, a sweeping bill to help states tackle opioid addiction and prevention. A group of House and Senate lawmakers from both parties last month introduced another major opioid addiction bill in February.
“We know it’s an epidemic,” said Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., who is also on the agriculture committee. “We’ve all supported funding legislation to deal with this epidemic. This doesn’t have to complicate the farm bill.”
Both men said they would vote against an amendment to the bill requiring drug testing for food stamps, which will send a strong signal to committee Republicans who might introduce such an amendment this week or when the measure reaches the House floor.
The $867 billion farm bill authorizes spending on agricultural programs and policy. More than 80 percent of the cost, however is dedicated to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as SNAP or food stamps.
Republicans in the past have clamored for a drug testing requirement for food stamps. The GOP amended the 2013 farm bill on the House floor with a drug testing requirement as well as a work requirement.
But the bill failed to pass, in part because Democrats opposed the requirements as well cuts to food stamp spending, while conservative Republicans wanted deeper cuts.
Republicans ended up splitting up and passing the measure in two bills, one addressing farm spending and the other food stamps.
Conaway said he is eager to avoid having to split the bills up this time.
House Democrats are opposed to the bill, however, and the Senate is working on a bipartisan measure that is likely to exclude the work requirement.
