To begin my first article for The East Aurora Bee, I want to thank everyone in my district for allowing me to continue my public service on behalf of Wyoming County and portions of Erie County. I am proud to call East Aurora my home, proud to have been the Mayor of East Aurora, and proud to continue to represent all of you in Albany.

I made a promise to all of you that I would fight for more accountability in New York’s welfare program. I take this promise seriously, as it is bound by the trust you all had in me when you checked my name at the ballot box. I will always fight for accountability when it comes to your hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

In an effort to keep this promise, I have recently authored my own legislation, Assembly Bill 6146, which requires recipients of public assistance to pass a drug test as a pre-qualification to receiving benefits. Also, during their time as recipients of social welfare, they will be subjected to random drug testing and reasonable-suspicion drug testing. We must send a message that, if you receive these programs, we had better be able to trust you to purchase the necessities and not illicit drugs. This will encourage a cleaner lifestyle and make the recipients more employable. Seven other states have passed legislation regarding drug testing for public assistance, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah.

I have also signed on to Assembly Bill 322, which requires recipients of social welfare programs to be residents of New York State for 90 days prior to applying for assistance. We should not encourage individuals to move to New York simply because we have an extremely gracious social safety net. We must push back against the culture of dependency in this state. We need to get people off the dole and on to the payroll. This state should encourage hard work and can do so through reform of our welfare system.

Another bill I have signed on to recently is Assembly Bill 3050, which ends the misuse of EBT cards at facilities like bars, liquor stores and adult entertainment facilities. This kind of abuse has been shown to be rampant in our state, based on the findings of an investigation revealed earlier this year. This is not acceptable, and we cannot and should not allow it to continue. Public assistance programs are not above oversight.

As always, my staff and I would love to hear from you. My district office can be reached by phone at (585) 786-0180 or by e-mail at dipietrod@assembly.state.ny.us. If you are on Facebook, please like my page, Assemblyman David DiPietro, to stay updated on what’s going on and how I’m fighting for you.