The move was opposed by civil rights groups and labor unions, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the AFL-CIO. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Senate kills rule limiting drug testing for unemployment benefits

The Senate voted along party lines Tuesday to repeal an Obama-era regulation restricting the scope of drug testing that states could require for recipients of unemployment benefits.

The measure overturning a Labor Department rule, which limited the industries for which states could mandate drug testing as a prerequisite for receiving unemployment benefits, passed 51-48.


President Donald Trump is expected to sign it into law, making the drug-testing rule the eighth Obama administration regulation that the Republican Congress has successfully killed this year through the previously little-used Congressional Review Act. That two-decade-old law allows lawmakers to scrap recently finalized executive-branch regulations through a resolution of disapproval, which can be passed with simple majorities in the House and Senate.

The move was opposed by civil rights groups and labor unions, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the AFL-CIO.