The U.S. Department of Agriculture will not allow the state of Georgia to force participants in food stamp programs to pass drug screenings first, authorities said Tuesday.
In March, Governor Nathan Deal signed a law passed by the state legislature that would require drug testing if a state employee believes with “reasonable suspicion” that a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participant is under the influence, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
The law is scheduled to go into effect on July 1, but Robin D. Bailey, the regional administrator of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, wrote in a letter posted by Atlanta’s NPR station, WABE, that this would violate Department of Agriculture policy, which “prohibits States from imposing additional standards of eligibility for SNAP participation.”
Georgia’s neighbor to the south, Florida, also tried to pass drug testing requirements for food stamps, but federal courts later declared those to be unconstitutional, the Associated Press reports.
- Anti-Black Violence Has Long Been the Most Common American Hate Crime—And We Still Don't Know the Full Extent
- One Million Americans Have Died of COVID-19. Here Are Some of Their Stories
- The Buffalo Shooter Targeted a City Haunted by Segregation
- Meet TIME’s Newest Class of Next Generation Leaders
- After Visiting Both Ends of the Earth, I Realized How Much Trouble We’re In
- The Ukrainian Musicians Fighting Russia Through Song
- Long-Lasting Birth Control Is Already Hard to Get. Advocates Worry It May Only Get Worse
- Here's Who Won the 2022 TIME100 Reader Poll
