Drug-testing those who get welfare is insensitive

Taxpayer money has provided a lifeline to folks like Tamika Simmons of Virginia Beach.

She's a 34-year-old mother of four children: 3-year-old twins, as well as 2- and 1-year-old daughters. Simmons has gotten benefits since November 2010, under the federal program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. She receives $451 a month.

I reached out to local and state officials this week, trying to put a face on welfare recipients. Legislators in the General Assembly have demonized people in the program, singling them out for proposed drug tests that would be linked to continued enrollment.

House delegates tabled a bill for one year, but a similar proposal in the Senate has passed a committee.

Simmons told me Friday that the father of her children is not involved in their lives now. She has a court order to get child support from him. She's moved back into her parents' home to pool resources and get help to raise the children.

"I have a loving and caring family," the onetime insurance agent said, adding that she wants to work.

Simmons earned a Bachelor of Science degree in communications from Old Dominion University in 2004. She's about halfway through a master's degree in film and TV production at Regent University.

"Life happens to everyone. What are you going to do?" she said. "If help is offered to you, take it and get back on your feet."

The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute reported this week that 76 percent of people in the commonwealth favor drug-testing of welfare recipients. Twenty-one percent thought it was a bad idea. The phone survey this month of 1,544 registered voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

I wonder whether the results would've been so lopsided if respondents had known about the shortcomings.

Virginia officials haven't done any studies or pilot projects on the issue. There's no evidence that welfare recipients use illegal drugs at higher rates than people not on public assistance.

The tests wouldn't include other Virginians who get state money, from legislators to government contractors. Why hit only people at the bottom rung of the economic ladder?

Also, similar laws haven't stood up to constitutional challenges in other states. Testing can be expensive, and the rates of positive results were very low in a Florida program before a federal judge halted it.

Virginia lawmakers who sponsored these bills haven't returned my requests for interviews. They're targeting families who, over a lifetime, have just a five-year limit to get TANF benefits.

Simmons already has completed a job search and readiness course through the Virginia Beach Department of Human Services. It ensured that her resume and other skills were up to date. She also must volunteer 35 hours a week with the department while hunting for work.

What does she think about the proposed drug tests?

"I don't find it to be a problem, honestly," Simmons said. "If you don't want to meet those requirements, you shouldn't ask for those services."

I am bothered by the tests.

They are cruel and costly. They pander to our worst caricatures about the poor.

They should be flushed.

Roger Chesley, 757-446-2329, roger.chesley@pilotonline.com, pilotonline.com/chesley