Consideration and Passage by House
Representative Greg Morris (R-156th) sponsored HB 772. Representative Greg Morris (R-156) placed House Bill 772 in the House Hopper on January 17, 2014. The House read the bill for the first time on January 21, 2014, and read the bill for the second time on January 22, 2014. Speaker of the House, Representative David Ralston (R-7th) assigned the bill to the House Judiciary Committee, which favorably reported a Committee substitute on February 25, 2014. The House Judiciary Committee eliminated a provision in the original bill that would "require" drug testing for food stamp applicants, but added the substitution, "reasonable suspicion." The House read the bill as substituted and adopted the House Judiciary Committee substitute by a vote of 107 to 66 on March 3, 2014.
Consideration and Passage by Senate
Senator Don Balfour (R-9th) sponsored HB 772 in the Senate, and the Senate first read and referred the bill on March 4, 2014. Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle (R) assigned it to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee (SHHSC). The Health and Human Services Committee favorably reported a Senate Committee substitute on March 12, 2014. The SHHSC substitution added drug testing for applicants and recipients for food stamps or TANF benefits upon a reasonable suspicion of drug use, and to require that electronic benefits transfer cards for food stamps benefits contain a photo of the recipient. Further, the Senate committee substitute amended the requirement that for two-parent families, one parent shall comply with the drug-testing requirement, and the requirement that any teen parent had to drug test. The Senate committee also added description of how the department shall determine reasonable suspicion. There were numerous floor debates, where Senators debated the definition of “reasonable suspicion,” and inquiries of requirement of job training for State employees, these amendments were rejected, and the bill was read a second time on March 12, 2014. The bill was engrossed and tabled on March 18, 2014. On crossover day, March 20, 2014, the bill was removed from the Senate Table. The Senate read the bill as substituted and adopted the Senate Health and Human Service Committee substitute by a vote of 29 to 22 on March 20, 2014. The House agreed to the Senate substitutions by a vote of 100 to 67 on March 20, 2014. The bill was sent to the Governor on March 27, 2014. The Governor signed the bill April 29, 2014, and the bill became Act 664 with an effective date July 1, 2014.
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