BENEFITS, NO SOBRIETY PROOF: Benitez-Thompson Backed Welfare Eligibility for Drug Felons, Helped Strip Treatment Test

Nevada Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson co-sponsored legislation in 2021 allowing people convicted of felony drug offenses to receive TANF cash assistance and SNAP food benefits without proving they were in treatment, had completed treatment, or were no longer illegally using controlled substances.

Assembly Bill 138 ultimately erased Nevada’s prior restrictions on public assistance for people convicted of felony possession, use or distribution of controlled substances. The enacted law made those individuals eligible for benefits if they otherwise qualified, expressly removing requirements that they participate in substance-abuse treatment or demonstrate that they had stopped possessing, using or distributing controlled substances. 

The bill did not begin quite that broadly.

As originally considered by the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee, AB138 would have removed the treatment requirement but still required a person convicted of a felony drug offense to demonstrate to state welfare officials that he or she was not currently illegally possessing, using or distributing controlled substances. A proposed amendment then went further, eliminating even that condition. 

Benitez-Thompson did more than quietly vote with the majority.

Committee minutes from March 17, 2021 show the amendment would make felony drug offenders eligible for TANF and SNAP “regardless” of whether they were participating in treatment, had abstained from controlled substances since beginning treatment, or were pregnant. After another lawmaker moved to amend and pass the bill, Benitez-Thompson personally seconded the motion. Five committee members voted no. 

She was subsequently added as an official co-sponsor. The amended legislation cleared the Assembly 26-16, passed the Senate unanimously and was signed by Democrat Gov. Steve Sisolak on May 14, 2021. 

It was not Benitez-Thompson’s first trip down this road.

Four years earlier, she helped advance Assembly Bill 427, another attempt to loosen Nevada’s restrictions on TANF and SNAP benefits for people with felony drug convictions. Benitez-Thompson personally introduced that measure before the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee, explaining that the proposal grew out of discussions with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada. 

The 2017 version was actually narrower than what Benitez-Thompson later backed in 2021. AB427 would have eliminated the requirement that drug felons complete treatment before receiving benefits, but it still required them to show they were not currently possessing, using or distributing controlled substances. Benitez-Thompson spoke for the bill on the Assembly floor, where it passed 32-10. 

Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval vetoed AB427 on May 30, 2017, and the Legislature did not override him. 

Four years later, with a Democrat governor in Carson City, Benitez-Thompson came back as a co-sponsor of legislation that went further than the bill Sandoval had stopped.

The distinction matters. The final 2021 law did not merely give public assistance to former drug offenders who had completed treatment and demonstrated sobriety. It removed those conditions altogether.

That is the legislative record, and this time there was no Republican governor standing between the bill and Nevada law.

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