[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 4178-4179]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  DISAPPROVING A RULE SUBMITTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR--Continued


                         Order For Adjournment

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come 
before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned 
under the previous order, following the remarks of Senator Cruz.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I rise today to commend the Senate for 
taking up legislation that I have introduced, along with my colleague 
in the House, Chairman Kevin Brady, to reverse yet another instance of 
Executive overreach by the Obama administration.
  H.J. Res. 42 passed the House 236 to 189, with support on both sides 
of the aisle, including nearly unanimous Republican support, and I urge 
my colleagues in this Chamber to swiftly approve this legislation and 
to send it to the President's desk for his signature.
  In the bipartisan Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 
2012, Congress permitted but did not require States to assess State 
unemployment compensation or insurance program applicants for drug 
usage under two circumstances: workers who had been discharged from 
their last job because of unlawful drug use and workers looking for 
jobs in occupations where applicants and employees are subject to drug 
testing.
  The unemployment insurance program is designed to facilitate swift 
reemployment by requiring applicants to be able to work and actively 
seek employment in order to be eligible. The 2012 job creation act 
noted that if a worker lost a job due to drug usage, that worker would 
have established him- or herself as not being fully able or available 
to work.
  Further, under appropriate State-level programs, States could choose 
to restrict benefits for individuals who fail drug tests as well as to 
design programs to help them overcome their drug use and become work-
ready. A number of States have responded to this opportunity. We are 
not helping anyone by leaving them in the position where they are 
dependent on and addicted to drugs.
  In Texas, for example, the Texas Legislature passed senate bill 21, 
which not only sought to secure the quality of job applicants, but it 
also provided help to those who needed it but would not have sought out 
that help otherwise themselves.
  The wording of the 2012 job creation act clearly shows that Congress 
specifically intended to provide States the ability to determine how to 
best implement these programs for their citizens. However, the Obama 
Department of Labor substantially narrowed the law to circumstances 
where testing is legally required, not merely allowed. Such an 
arbitrarily narrow definition undermines the ability of States to 
conduct drug testing in their programs, as permitted by Congress. This 
regulation is overly prescriptive. It removes State discretion 
regarding implementation, and it ignores years of congressional concern 
on both sides of the aisle.
  I thank Chairman Brady for taking the lead in the House on dealing 
with this overreach and for his leadership on H.J. Res. 42 to repeal 
this regulation.
  This joint resolution has broad support, including from President 
Trump, Texas's Governor Abbott, Mississippi's Governor Bryant, Utah's 
Governor Herbert, and Wisconsin's Governor Walker. All are united in 
restoring the flexibility of the States to deal with the problem of 
drug use and drug addiction

[[Page 4179]]

and to tailor their unemployment programs to meeting that problem.
  This is yet another step in overturning the Obama administration's 
Executive overreach that has done so much damage. I encourage my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this measure and to 
return discretion to the States and to the people.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________