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Congressional Record: October 7, 1999 (Senate)
Page S12188-S12215

   DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION AND
          RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2000--Continued



  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I now submit the managers' package which
has been cleared on both sides.

[...]

  The amendments are as follows:


                           amendment no. 2273

       At the appropriate place in the bill add the following:

     SEC.   . CONFOUNDING BIOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES
                   ON POLYGRAPHY.

       (a) Findings.--The Senate finds that--
       (1) The use of polygraph tests as a screening tool for
     federal employees and contractor personnel is increasing.
       (2) A 1983 study by the Office of Technology Assessment
     found little scientific evidence to support the validity of
     polygraph tests in such screening applications.
       (3) The 1983 study further found that little or no
     scientific study had been undertaken on the effects of
     prescription and non-prescription drugs on the validity of
     polygraph tests, as well as differential responses to
     polygraph tests according to biological and physiological
     factors that may vary according to age, gender, or ethnic
     backgrounds, or other factors relating to natural variability
     in human populations.
       (4) A scientific evaluation of these important influences
     on the potential validity of polygraph tests should be
     studied by a neutral agency with biomedical and physiological
     expertise in order to evaluate the further expansion of the
     use of polygraph tests on federal employees and contractor
     personnel.
       (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the Sense of the Senate
     that the Director of the National Institutes of Health should
     enter into appropriate arrangements with the National Academy
     of Sciences to conduct a comprehensive study and
     investigation into the scientific validity of polygraphy as a
     screening tool for federal and federal contractor personnel,
     with particular reference to the validity of polygraph tests
     being proposed for use in proposed rules published at 64 Fed.
     Reg. 45062 (August 18, 1999).