Three bills prefiled in the Alabama House of Representatives take aim at Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits, known more commonly as food stamps and welfare respectively.

All three have been filed by Rep. Tommy Hanes, R-Scottsboro, and are scheduled to be taken up when the legislature convenes for its regular session in March.

HB3 calls for the “Department of Human Resources (DHR) to administer a drug screening program for an applicant for SNAP benefits upon reasonable suspicion of illegal substance use.”

The guidelines for assessing “reasonable suspicion of illegal substance use,” as defined in the bill, include if a person has a conviction for “the use or distribution” of a drug without a prescription with five years of applying for benefits; if a person previously tested positive for drug use applying for benefits; if “a reasonable person would conclude the applicant uses or is under the influence of drugs without a prescription.”

How a person would arrive at this conclusion is not laid out in the legislation.

The bill would also require applicants to cover the cost of the drug screening if a positive result is found and applicants would also be required to “disclose, under penalty of perjury, any criminal conviction related to the use or distribution of a drug.”

Applicants would receive a warning for the first failed test but would lose SNAP benefits for a second failure.

Similarly, a person who refuses to submit to a drug screen would be ineligible for benefits.

Policy Analyst for Alabama Arise, Carol Gundlach, Hanes may be on shaky ground legally with this legislation.

“It is my understanding that under federal law you cannot drug test SNAP recipients,” Gundlach said.

Additionally, the federal government does not provide funding for the drug tests, which can be a “considerable cost” to the state.

Gundlach noted that the legislation puts DHR in a tenuous position as it would possibly be tasked with enforcing a law that stand in opposition to federal guidelines or refusing to enforce a law that has been passed by the state legislature.

Another of Hanes’ bills, HB9, would prohibit Alabama from seeking work requirement waivers for “able-bodied adults without dependents” (ABAWDs) for SNAP benefits.

Under federal law, ABAWDs are required to meet basic work requirements to receive full SNAP benefits, but states can request waivers in the case of extreme circumstances – under Hanes’ bill, Alabama would not be allowed to apply for such a waiver.

“We oppose that because we think it’s crazy to tie the governor’s hands in the event that there’s another oil spill, or a natural disaster, or another recession,” Gundlach said. “We think it’s a mistake.”

Gundlach also said the bill’s language would undo a reasonable policy at DHR and replace it with one that would “not help people find jobs or get out of poverty.”

Hanes’ third bill, HB14, called for drug screenings for certain TANF applicants, but the language in the bill was unavailable through the legislature’s website – Gundlach thinks that might be because such testing is already allowed by law, though it is rarely used because of the cost.

According to Gundlach, Hanes has brought similar bills before the legislature for the past couple of years and, so far, none of them have made it to the House floor for a debate.

“We’re certainly going to hope that’s the situation again this year,” Gundlach said.

Hanes could not be reached for comment.