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If freshman legislator Rep. Ken Legler has his way, Texas’ already stingy unemployment insurance benefits will reach even fewer jobless Texans. The Pasadena Republican’s House Bill 1135 would mandate drug testing for people filing to collect unemployment insurance and deny payments to those testing positive.

Legler says his experience as a business owner led him to author this bill. “One of the things that bothered me more than anything was when a person used to come in and apply for a job,” he says. “My HR person would say, ‘I’m gonna send you down for a drug test.’ And then it comes back positive. And then they keep collecting unemployment insurance.”

Unemployment insurance has been hot at the Legislature this session. The feds have $555 million in stimulus funds for Texas’ fast-dwindling Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund­­—but only if the Lege expands eligibility. In 2008, Texas insured just 20 percent of its unemployed, earning the rank of 48th in the nation. On March 12, Gov. Rick Perry said he would turn down the feds’ $555 million.

Expanding eligibility would stimulate the economy, says Don Baylor, senior policy analyst at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank. When the jobless receive benefits, they are less likely to face foreclosures or need Medicaid or welfare. What’s more, Baylor says every dollar the state pays in benefits creates $2.15 in economic activity. “By suppressing people’s ability to get benefits,” he says, “you are also suppressing Texas’ ability to emerge out of the recession.”

Legler says workers who have used illegal drugs are not “physically able to work” and shouldn’t collect unemployment. “Unemployment insurance is employer-paid insurance that helps workers who are unemployed for no fault of their own. If they fail the drug test, right there, it’s their own fault,” he says.

Rick Levy, legal director at the Texas AFL-CIO, says Legler’s reasoning misses the point. “We should be doing everything we can to get people back to work, not devoting precious resources to ferret out the drug-using unemployed.”

Pre-employment drug screening typically costs $25 to $75. Texas had 884,422 claims for benefits in 2008, and the comptroller recently reported that Texas lost 75,800 jobs in January. You do the math.

Legler says he hasn’t worked out how the state would pay for the drug tests yet. He wants the state to pay for those who pass, but people who fail would pay their own way. “I think the person needs to know there’s consequences,” Legler says.

In that spirit, Legler has also authored House Bill 1136 to exclude people from benefits if they are fired for violating their employers’ drug-testing policies.