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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).
                                  



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