RALEIGH — North Carolina
residents applying for welfare could be asked to provide their physical
fingerprints to the Department of Social Services under a House bill that
tightens regulations on benefit applicants.
The provision has
angered Democrats and advocates for the poor, and raised concerns among DSS
offices and law enforcement agencies about how prints would be collected and
processed and who would pay for the procedure.
The bill – House Bill
392 – adds a search for outstanding felony warrants, and probation and parole
violations to background checks already performed on benefit applicants. It
also requires applicants to the Work First program, which provides families
money and job training, to get drug tested if a county DSS office finds any
reason to suspect them of illegal substance use. DSS would use drug
convictions, warrants and arrests from the past three years; drug screenings;
and written tests to determine the reasonable suspicion necessary for testing.
The Senate approved an
amended version of the bill July 10, and the House is expected to take it up
Monday.
DSS needs to “have the
tools necessary to ensure we’re not providing benefits to felons,” said the
bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Dean Arp, a Republican from Monroe.
Democratic lawmakers
and advocates for the poor have contested the bill’s provision on drug testing,
which resulted in some language in the legislation being eliminated. The
background checks haven’t generated as much backlash, but that changed after
the fingerprinting provision came to light.
The bill would allow
DSS to ask Work First and food stamp applicants for fingerprints, which would
be used to perform federal background checks. DSS offices don’t currently
fingerprint applicants.
Sen. Angela Bryant of
Rocky Mount, a Democrat, voted for the Senate bill but says she wouldn’t have
if she had been aware of the fingerprinting provision.
“I would have raised a
big stink” and voted against the bill, she said. Both Bryant and Sen. Josh
Stein, a Raleigh Democrat, called it “overkill.”
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