Detroit Representative Asks: If Welfare Recipients are Drug Tested, Should Legislators be Subject to Tests Too?

Michigan lawmakers are considering a suspicion-based drug testing program for some welfare recipients, and it's raising questions about who else should be subject to that type of monitoring.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, opposes the plan that passed the House last week and is now pending in the Senate. But Tlaib says if the state is going to require drug testing for cash assistance recipients, lawmakers also should be screened for illegal substances.

"We're all being paid through public, taxpayer dollars – just like the taxpayer dollars that are paying for public assistance for needy families," Tlaib said. "I think that we should be held to the same standards that we ask from some of our poor families."

Tlaib's amendment to the welfare bill, which would have required state lawmakers to be tested for illegal drugs as a condition of holding office, was dismissed without a vote.

http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/06/drug_test_lawmakers_draft.html#incart_river_default