STAFF ED: Bill requiring drug test for welfare assistance polluted with problems

It's a common joke around parts of Nebraska that we need to cut down on the length of state legislative meetings – that way, our representatives have less time to suggest foolish, shortsighted laws.

Unfortunately, such a change doesn't appear to be coming any time soon.

And in the interval, our legislators are doing their best to remind us of why the joke started in the first place.

The latest example of such legislative foolishness comes from Fremont Sen. Charlie Janssen's LB940.

Janssen's bill would require welfare recipients to pass a drug test before receiving their welfare benefits.

Janssen's reasoning is, on an infantile, elementary level, understandable.

After all, welfare costs the state money, and if it's being abused, that's a problem.

Unfortunately, further investigation reveals a myriad of problems with the proposed bill.

First, if welfare is denied to an adult due to drug use, the adult might not be the only one suffering as a result – what if that adult has children?

Will we deny children the benefits of the system because their parent made a mistake?

Additionally, what are the costs of implementing such a program?

It's unlikely the program would be cost effective, because the cost of creating a testing system that is constitutional (more on that in a minute) would likely exceed the money saved by denying the benefits to those who failed the drug tests in the first place.

Only misguided, overly simplistic fiscal conservatives in America could come up with such a system – one premised on cutting costs that ends up costing more than what we had before.

Finally, there is the question of legality.

Michigan is the only state that has "succeeded" in passing such a law, but it was thrown out in court for being unconstitutional since it violated protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

So while we certainly support the abstract concept of saving the state money, we can't support Janssen's shortsighted bill.

Maybe if our legislators were really serious about saving money, they'd simply cut down on their meeting times – then they're saving us money and sparing us the time it takes to analyze their silly, frivolous bills.
opinion@dailynebraskan.com