(Photo by Ron Sachs – Pool/Getty Images)
President Trump today signed HJ Res 42 disallowing US DOL adopted regulations that limited drug testing of UI claimants by state UI agencies.
>> White House Signed Legislation
>> H.J. Res. 42
House Ways and Means Committee Kevin Brady was an advocate for the disallowance of the regulations and released a statement.
“This new law repeals an Obama Administration overreach and lays the groundwork for states to help more people get back to work—a win for families, workers, job creators, and local economies. I’m proud to have led this effort to help more Texans and people across the country find a job, earn a paycheck, and climb the economic ladder,”
UWC submitted comments about the rules as initially filed raising concerns that the rules were more restrictive than the federal statute. Rules as finally adopted in 2016 made some modifications but remained very limiting to states interested in implementing drug testing.
The approval of the disallowance of the regulations will result in the statutory language remaining in place and the US DOL charged with revising its interpretation and regulations as necessary to implement the statutory language as intended.
Statutory Language
The actual statutory language provides:
SEC. 2105. DRUG TESTING OF APPLICANTS.
Section 303 of the Social Security Act is amended by adding
at the end the following:
‘‘(l)(1) Nothing in this Act or any other provision of Federal law shall be considered to prevent a State from enacting legislation to provide for—
‘‘(A) testing an applicant for unemployment compensation for the unlawful use of controlled substances as a condition for receiving such compensation, if such applicant—
‘‘(i) was terminated from employment with the applicant’s most recent employer (as defined under the State law) because of the unlawful use of controlled substances; or
‘‘(ii) is an individual for whom suitable work (as defined under the State law) is only available in an occupation that regularly conducts drug testing (as determined under
regulations issued by the Secretary of Labor); or
‘‘(B) denying such compensation to such applicant on the basis of the result of the testing conducted by the State under legislation described in subparagraph (A).
‘‘(2) For purposes of this subsection—
‘‘(A) the term ‘unemployment compensation’ has the meaning given such term in subsection (d)(2)(A); and
‘‘(B) the term ‘controlled substance’ has the meaning given such term in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802).’’.
