A bill (HB 1205) that would allow state agencies to randomly drug test employees may still be alive, despite its trouble in a House committee on Wednesday.
The measure, by Rep. Jimmie Smith, R-Inverness, wouldn’t require drug testing, like a measure that passed last year and was thrown out by a court, but would allow state agencies to have a random drug testing program.
It went down on a vote in the House Appropriations Committee, but the committee agreed to reconsider the original vote and then postponed consideration of the bill. That’s often a sign a bill is finished – and the chairwoman, Rep. Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, said the bill was essentially dead.
House Speaker Dean Cannon said after a floor session Wednesday, however, that’s not necessarily the case.
“I think it’s available,” he said of the measure.
Under House rules, it is indeed available, though it would appear to be lacking sufficient support in the committee.
Cannon also made it clear that it is “the committee’s job to decide what to do with it.”
If state legislators want to drug test state workers, they should include themselves—as they are the ultimate definition of State of Florida employees. Right? If they are so keen on this unwarranted (pun intended, unfortunately) “taking of rights,” they should be first in line to participate in this travesty.