Governor Haslam expected to sign welfare drug test bill

photo Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam
Arkansas-Tennessee Live Blog

NASHVILLE - Gov. Bill Haslam's press secretary says the governor plans to sign legislation requiring drug testing for some welfare applicants, despite calls from the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee to veto the measure.

"The governor is expected to sign the bill," Alexia Poe said in an email.

She said state Department of Human Services officials "will work on the rules to implement the law and will work with the attorney general who will have to approve them."

"There is still a lot of work to be done," Poe added.

ACLU-Tennessee Executive Director Hedy Weinberg sent a letter last week to Haslam, a Republican, to veto the GOP-sponsored bill, which mandates "suspicion-based" drug testing for applicants for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families if they fail a psychological screening test.

It raises "serious constitution concerns," the ACLU contends.

"This bill is the latest in a series of attacks the legislature has waged on civil liberties this session," Weinberg said in a news release. "Presuming that ... applicants are more likely to use drugs than scholarship applicants, farmers, legislators or anyone else receiving government funds is not only an insulting stereotype contradicted by actual research, it's constitutionally suspect."

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