Labor Department re-considers drug test rule for unemployment pay

The Trump administration is looking to expand drug testing for unemployment benefits about a year after killing an Obama-era rule that limited the ability of states to screen applicants, according to The Hill.

The U.S. Labor Department has indicated it would broaden the number of occupations that can drug test for unemployment. The 2016 rule repealed last year limited testing to certain kinds of jobs, including public transit drivers, pilots, and professions that required the use of firearms. The Labor Department now might redefine and broaden the range of occupations and the guidelines for testing.

In the regulatory agenda, a semiannual roadmap for the administration’s rulemaking plans, the Labor Department warned that, after the repeal of the 2016 rule, “states no longer have authority to drug test unemployment compensation applicants for whom suitable work is only available in occupations that regularly conduct drug testing for unlawful use of controlled substances.”

Labor Department spokesman Eric Holland said only that the agency is “diligently working on a new proposal regarding unemployment compensation drug testing that will be substantially different from the prior rule. When it is ready, we will publish it in the Federal Register for review and comment by the public”.

Only three states — Texas, Mississippi and Wisconsin — have passed laws to allow drug testing for their unemployment insurance programs.

The National Employment Law Project has warned that expanding the rule to make drug testing a condition of eligibility for unemployment benefits would not only be costly, but also unconstitutional.