Hair Testing Proposed Legislation

Legislation Would Allow Hair Testing for Federal Motor Carrier Testing Programs

In late October, a congressional delegation from Arkansas introduced H.R. 3403 and S.1625, a bill that would give trucking companies the option to use hair testing for illegal drugs as an approved method of screening drivers.
 
Currently, only urine testing is recognized by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for pre-employment testing of truck drivers. Many trucking companies, however, utilize hair testing in their company programs to further enhance their safety programs and find that this results in a large increase in positive test results.

Congress authorized the creation of a drug and alcohol testing clearinghouse last year by the Department of Transportation (DOT). Once this clearinghouse is up next year, it will identify anyone who has previously tested positive on pre-employment drug tests required by the federal government before being employed as a truck driver. But until hair testing is an approved method of testing, no positive hair tests will appear in the database. This legislation would enable those drug test results to be reported to the clearinghouse.

DATIA will keep members informed on the status of this legislation.

In our Dec. 19 edition of eNews, find out how you can send your letter of support for these proposed bills!