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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Energy says it had just over 100 pre-employment drug tests failures during the last two years.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley earlier this week conceded she couldn't back up her often-repeated claim that half of the applicants for hundreds of jobs there had failed drug tests. Haley said the person who had told her that during her campaign would not substantiate the claim.

Haley said the unproven remark shaped her outlook on linking unemployment benefits to drug tests.

Data released Wednesday shows a two-year failure rate under 1 percent for more than 17,000 tests for the agency or its subcontractors.

Last year, 71 people failed out of 9,900 tests. In the year before, 37 people failed out of nearly 8,000 tests.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)