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“THE OMNIBUS TRANSPORTATION EMPLOYEE TESTING ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1995” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1229 on June 13, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE OMNIBUS TRANSPORTATION EMPLOYEE TESTING ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1995
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HON. NORMAN Y. MINETA
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 13, 1995
Mr. MINETA. Mr. Speaker, today, I am introducing the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act Amendments of 1995. This bill, if enacted, will allow both the Department of Transportation and transportation employers to focus their efforts and resources on activities that truly enhance safety.
In 1991, Congress enacted legislation that imposed significant new drug and alcohol testing requirements on the transportation sector. The required testing included all modes--mass transit, railroad, trucking, and aviation--and many kinds of testing--preemployment, reasonable suspicion, random, and postaccident. The purpose of the legislation was to improve transportation safety, and the bill contributed to that goal.
However, one part of this bill has been mired in legal problems, and, as a result, simply does not contribute to transportation safety. That is the part of the bill having to do with preemployment testing for alcohol.
The core of the problem is that alcohol consumption by someone not yet employed in the transportation sector is not illegal. The bill attempted to deal with this problem by requiring preemployment testing for alcohol use, in violation of law or Federal regulation. However, this creates an unworkable situation where we require employers to test applicants, knowing that in virtually all instances, the results cannot be put to any purpose.
A recent decision by the court of appeals found that the Department of Transportation's regulations to implement preemployment testing for alcohol were inappropriate and the court vacated those regulations. The Department of Transportation suspended the regulations for preemployment alcohol testing to comply with the court's decision. But, we still have on the books statutory requirement to do something that everyone now acknowledges makes no sense, that is preemployment testing of all applicants for illegal consumption of alcohol.
We need to clean up this absurd situation and get both industry and the Department of Transportation focused on the testing that improves transportation safety. DOT estimates that preemployment alcohol testing of transportation applicants would cost around $30 million per year. This represents resources and attention that would be far more effective if focused on the testing that does produce safety benefits. We need to focus on the requirements for reasonable suspicion, random, and postaccident testing with respect to alcohol. In the case of illegal drugs, we need to focus on all types of testing, including preemployment.
The bill I am introducing today would rescind the invalidated requirement for preemployment alcohol testing of transportation employees, while making it clear that employers have the option of conducting such tests, if they wish. All other requirements for drug and alcohol testing are retained.
Thus, this bill eliminates a requirement that has proven to be unworkable, in favor of those requirements that have been effective in our ongoing efforts to improve transportation safety. We need to focus both our resources and our regulatory attention on those areas where we can achieve the greatest public safety benefit.
Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act Amendments of 1995--
Section-by-Section Analysis
Section 1: Section 1 establishes a short title for the bill--the ``Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act Amendments of 1995.''
Section 2: Section 2 amends existing language of the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991 concerning drug and alcohol testing in the mass transit industry. It does not change the current provision of the Act that the regulations requiring testing in that industry provide for preemployment, reasonable suspicion, random, and post-accident drug testing. However, it provides that only three kinds of alcohol testing--reasonable suspicion, random, and post-accident--are required. The bill would eliminate the statutory mandate for preemployment alcohol testing, on the basis that this form of alcohol testing is less necessary than the others in order to have an effective program for deterrence and detection of alcohol misuse. Because alcohol is a legal substance that dissipates from the bloodstream relatively quickly, testing for its presence is most valuable at the time when safety-sensitive functions are performed. By contrast, the drugs for which testing is required are illegal, and their detection even during preemployment testing is important. Preemployment alcohol testing under the Act currently is estimated to cover more than seven million employees and cost about $30 million annually.
However, many employers may find that conducting preemployment alcohol testing can serve a useful purpose as a way of emphasizing, from the outset of an employee's connection with an employer, the employer's commitment to a substance abuse-free transportation workplace. Employers may also find preemployment alcohol testing helpful to screen out applicants whose use of alcohol is chronic. Such employers may wish to have preemployment alcohol testing as part of their substance abuse prevention programs. For this reason, the amendment provides that employers who choose to require preemployment alcohol testing may do so as part of their program that responds to the Act and Department of Transportation regulations.
Section 3: This section makes parallel changes to the railroad industry testing requirements under the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991.
Section 4: This section makes parallel changes to the motor carrier industry testing requirements under the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991.
Section 5: This section makes parallel changes to the aviation industry testing requirements under the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991, including testing for Federal Aviation Administration employees performing safety-sensitive functions.
Section 6: This section establishes an effective date for the amendments made by the Act.
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