LANSING – The House Commerce Committee reported changes Wednesday to the state’s unemployment system to stay in conformity with the federal government’s regulations and to deter instances of fraud.

Most of the bills in the package won approval with bipartisan support, except for HB 4952 . The bill is the most controversial of the package because it would end a person’s unemployment benefits if he or she failed a prospective employer’s drug test.

Democrats on the committee said the bill has no reporting requirements, and since the prospective employer is not actually required to report to the Unemployment Insurance Agency the results of a person’s drug test, the bill is about politics and not policy.

The bill cleared the committee 12-4 on party lines, with Rep. Stacy Erwin Oakes (D-Saginaw), Rep. Gretchen Driskell (D-Saline) and Rep. Henry Yanez (D-Sterling Heights) abstaining.

Rep. Jon Switalski (D-Warren), minority vice chair of the committee, offered two amendments to the bill. The first would remove the tie-bar to the other bills in the package (HB 4949 , HB 4950 , HB 4951 , HB 4953 and HB 4954 ).

“This is nothing more than a political bill, a political statement,” he said. “One that says … if you’re collecting unemployment insurance, collecting any other type of government assistance, prove to us that you don’t do drugs.”

The other amendment would require that all who receive taxpayer dollars pass a drug test, including legislators. Both amendments failed.

Rep. Frank Foster (R-Petoskey), chair of the committee, said the bill does not require businesses to administer a drug test or report the results because he doesn’t want to stick them with a mandate that would be unreasonable or costly.

“Largely what we want to say is if you’ve got work, and we know we have 70 to 75,000 rotating jobs open every month in this state, and you choose not to work because you would rather do drugs, that’s wrong and we’re not going to fund it anymore,” Foster said.

Switalski, however, said the previous language (HB 4240 ) was unconstitutional, and the current bill is a political tool for 2014 elections.

The committee reported the other bills in the package 17-0, with Driskell and Yanez abstaining. HB 4954 had Ms. Oakes join in abstaining and went to the full House on a 16-0 vote.

The first bill, HB 4949, was changed so that if someone is below the poverty level and received unemployment benefits through no fault of his or her own, those benefits do not have to be paid back. If there was a department mistake, the benefit recipient and the employer would not be held responsible.

Foster said he was happy to have bipartisan support on the legislation. He said many aspects of the bills are to remain in conformity with federal requirements, but some of the bills would help the agency run more efficiently. He said in the last three years the agency has misappropriated 10 percent of its funds.

“You’ve got a real issue here which translates into less funding for employees who actually fall on hard times, and more money that businesses have to pay out,” he said.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com