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Saturday, January 06, 2018

Labor Department eyes drug test rule for unemployment pay

Republicans in March repealed Obama-era rule limiting ability of states to drug test

The Trump administration is looking to bring back and broaden a rule that Congress killed last year requiring drug testing for unemployment benefits.

Using the Congressional Review Act (CRA), Republicans in March repealed an Obama-era rule that limited the ability of states to drug test people applying for unemployment pay.

Republicans said the 2016 rule was too narrow because it only allowed states to drug test people whose occupations already regularly required it. That category included airplane pilots, flight crews and air traffic controllers, commercial and public transit drivers and any job requiring an employee to carry a firearm.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...


All things considered, sounds like a waste of time and resources. People who qualify for unemployment have lost a job for reasons beyond their control. If they were at fault and fired for cause they won't be eligible for benefits to start with.

To be sure, there will be some with issues but the goal of UI is to buffer the job loss while helping them to become re-employed. Leaving them with no income and a failed drug test is not the speedy way back to work.

Anonymous said...

All things considered, sounds like a waste of time and resources. People who qualify for unemployment have lost a job for reasons beyond their control. If they were at fault and fired for cause they won't be eligible for benefits to start with.

To be sure, there will be some with issues but the goal of UI is to buffer the job loss while helping them to become re-employed. Leaving them with no income and a failed drug test is not the speedy way back to work.