Joe Manchin Backs Public Housing Drug Tests, Got Idea From Schoolchildren

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) thinks it might be a good idea to drug test public housing residents -- and he's crediting school children for inspiring him.

"Our moms and daddies don’t use that money for us," Manchin said a group of middle school students told him, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported Monday.

Manchin said he told the students their idea made sense, but where would the children go if their parents tested positive for drugs? He got a sad answer.

"Foster care is the only thing that can save me. My mom is still a drug addict from Beckley,'" Manchin said one child told him.

Manchin's office declined to elaborate on the idea. A spokesman declined to clarify when the conversation happened, but said the senator speaks to a lot of kids in southwestern West Virginia, where drug abuse is rampant.

Unlike with some other safety net programs, federal law doesn't explicitly allow or forbid local housing agencies drug testing tenants, according to the Congressional Research Service. A handful of housing agencies around the country have required tenants to undergo urine tests to prove they're not on drugs.

Civil liberties advocates say blanket drug testing policies can violate the Constitution's protections against unreasonable search by the government: The American Civil Liberties Union sued over the Chicago Housing Authority's drug test requirement in 2013.

Manchin suggested treatment, not loss of benefits, would be the goal. "You can’t do any of this until you have adequate treatment centers," he said Monday, according to the Gazette-Mail. Most of the welfare drug-testing schemes proposed over the past few years have required treatment for users rather than simply ending their benefits.

Manchin criticized the War on Drugs for emphasizing incarceration over treatment, and also pointed a finger at pharmaceutical companies for flooding the market with painkillers.