Tell Congress: Investigate Welfare Drug-Testing Failures

Flawed drug tests are causing families to lose their children. Benefits are being cut off. And parents are branded as addicts. It’s a nationwide failure hiding in plain sight.

Across the country, welfare agencies and family courts rely on private drug-testing labs to make life-altering decisions. A single test can decide whether a parent keeps custody of their child or whether a family receives basic support. But investigations have exposed false positives, sloppy lab practices, and almost no meaningful oversight.

Congress must launch a full investigation, subpoena drug-testing contractors, and expose how unreliable science became embedded in welfare and custody systems. Lawmakers must also set national standards so agencies can identify trustworthy labs.

Tell Congress: “Investigate drug-testing contractors used by child welfare and government agencies. Set national standards to stop families from being destroyed by junk science and flawed tests.”

One company, Averhealth, became a national warning sign after it was investigated for fraud and forced to pay a $1.3 million settlement. Yet that raises a terrifying question: how many other labs are producing faulty results that quietly tear families apart every day?

Right now, no one knows. Government agencies have no reliable way to tell which labs use sound science and which rely on junk testing. Parents are punished first and allowed to fight later — if they have the money, time, or legal help to do so. Children are separated. Jobs are lost. And families spiral into crisis.

In a just society, access to social safety net benefits wouldn’t involve drug tests at all. While we work toward that, it’s important that we address the most immediate harms by faulty and flawed drug tests that are yielding false positive results.

Add your name now. Demand Congress investigate welfare drug-testing failures and put an end to this cruelty — before more families are torn apart.

Tell Congress: “Investigate drug-testing contractors used by child welfare and government agencies. Set national standards to stop families from being destroyed by junk science and flawed tests.”