海角大神

Ohio state legislators are reviving a controversial plan to screen welfare applicants for drugs, reports .

The bill, expected to be introduced Wednesday, is being sponsored by Republican Reps. Tim Schaffer and Ron Maag.

Representative Schaffer first for a two-year pilot program in 2013, and said at a press conference Tuesday that the new legislation resolves concerns associated with his previous bill.

Before, for instance, applicants who were denied welfare wouldn鈥檛 have been given the ability to receive drug treatment, reported , but the new bill appropriates $100,000 for treatment programs.

If the measure passes, people applying for cash assistance under the Ohio Works First program would, first, undergo written screenings. Those with risk factors for drug abuse would be referred to a urine test, and, if applicable, on to a course of treatment. After six months, they would be eligible to get re-tested, reports聽.

Under this proposal, benefits would still be made of rejected applicants through guardians, churches, or other third parties, says Schaffer.

"This legislation is not a means to deny benefits, but rather, a means to identify and help these families in need," he聽. "There's nothing that's going to stop getting the benefits to the children and families that need it."

As of May 2015, about 110,000 people 鈥� 95,000 children and 15,000 adults 鈥撀爓ere receiving Ohio Works First benefits, according to the . On average, each recipient got about $195 per month, for a total of more than $21 million each month.

Ohio has tightened its public benefits system in recent years. In 2012, the state was 鈥渟till scrambling鈥� to meet a new federal standard designed to find jobs for at least half of all welfare recipients, reported 海角大神.

"Enrollment in the program has dropped聽after the state began enforcing requirements聽that able-bodied adult recipients work or train for a job at least 30 hours a week," according to .

But the idea of cutting benefits is a polarizing one that strikes familiar chords across the nation. A growing number of states 鈥� now 13 鈥� have passed bills to test or screen public assistance recipients for drugs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Among the recently contested states are Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin, and Kansas. Broad testing rules in Florida聽聽in 2013, when a district court ruled that聽the law violated Fourth Amendment protections from unreasonable search.聽

In February, news site Think Progress also found that welfare "applicants actually test positive than the drug use of the general population."聽Of the seven states that had existing programs, "the rate of positive drug tests to total welfare applicants ranges from 0.002 percent to 8.3 percent, but all except one have a rate below 1 percent," noted the report.

This meant that taxpayers were "spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to ferret out very few drug users," it concluded.

"While supporters say the Republican-backed legislation targets drug use and encourages responsible public spending, critics say it is unconstitutional, humiliating, and wasteful," reported the Monitor on a bill last year in Michigan.

Looking at those who have taken to social media, the landscape in Ohio is just as divided.

"This is merely perpetuating an ugly stereotype of people on public assistance," Lisa Wurm, policy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. "I agree with their stated goal of getting people who struggle with drug addiction help, but this is not the way to go about it."