ST. PAUL — A Minnesota Senate committee has approved a bill to overturn a law requiring drug tests for welfare seekers if they have been convicted of a felony drug offense in the past decade.

The bill passed the Health, Human Services and Housing Committee on a voice vote Monday.

Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter told the committee that the law provided no funding for counties to carry it out, and is a waste of taxpayer money. Sen. Jeff Hayden, a Minneapolis Democrat who authored the bill, told his colleagues the perception that many welfare recipients are on drugs is false.