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).