If you live in Wisconsin and want your working neighbors to fund your existence, you may need to start peeing in a cup to prove your dependency on the government isn’t related to your dependency on drugs. The governor of Wisconsin is a love em’ or hate em’ kind of leader. Conservatives love him for making public sector unions pay more of their own benefits, liberals hate him for daring to stand up to the powerful, organized mega-donors of the Democrat Party. Governor Walker is about to shake things up again in the blue state of Wisconsin, and liberals are not gonna be happy…
Gov. Scott Walker is moving forward with an effort to drug test some food stamp recipients, with testing expected to begin in as little as a year absent action from lawmakers or the federal government.
Wisconsin’s Republican governor has submitted a plan to state lawmakers for drug testing able-bodied recipients of the state’s Food Share program. If the state Legislature doesn’t object within 120 days, the plan will go into effect, though it will take at least a year for actual testing to begin.
The program won’t necessarily have a massive effect, however. The Walker administration estimated in October that only about 220 food stamp recipients statewide — or just 0.3% of able-bodied adults — would test positive in the first year.
“Employers have jobs available, but they need skilled workers who can pass a drug test,” Walker said in a statement. “This rule change means people battling substance use disorders will be able to get the help they need to get healthy and get back into the workforce.”
A year ago, Walker had asked then President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration to clear the way for the change in the food stamp program, which is overseen by the state but largely funded by federal taxpayers. So far that hasn’t happened but a Walker spokesman said Monday that the governor believes the state can proceed without any federal action.
“Our position is we have the authority to implement the rule,” spokesman Tom Evenson said.
The now-departed appointees of President Barack Obama didn’t see it that way. In January 2017, right before Trump took over the White House, the former U.S. official in charge of the replacement program to food stamps said such testing would require a change in federal law.
“The law clearly does not allow it,” said Kevin Concannon, undersecretary at the federal Food and Nutrition Service within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Walker’s “office forwarded that request to us and it was very clear, we consulted the legal counsels here and the law absolutely does not allow it.”
The Trump administration, however, may not see the issue in the same light. – Journal Sentinel
