Rohrabacher Asks Drug Tests for U.S. House

Orange County Rep. Dana Rohrabacher called on Congress Thursday to open a Capitol Hill front in the war on drugs.

Rohrabacher introduced legislation that would allow members of the House of Representatives to use money set aside to run their offices to pay for drug tests for themselves and their congressional staffs.

“Congress is not exempt from the war on drugs,” said Rohrabacher (R-Lomita). “Drug testing is a way that we can prove we have personally joined the fight.”

Rohrabacher said he saw no conflict between the drug initiative and his political background as a Libertarian. The Libertarian philosophy calls for minimal government regulation of citizens’ private lives.

“We’re not trying to sneak up on people and put them in jail,” Rohrabacher said. “What we’re trying to do is provide incentives in our system to people who might be susceptible to drug abuse and give them an incentive not to use drugs.” Despite endorsements by eight other congressmen who attended a Capitol Hill press conference, Rohrabacher’s suggestion to test staff members did not meet with universal approval.

“How about testing for typing? Let’s start with that,” said Rep. Andy Jacobs (D-Ind.). “There is the doctrine of probable cause before we start searching and seizing people’s blood. . . . I’m getting a little tired of spending taxpayers’ money for political grandstanding.”

Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said random drug testing is “a terrible waste of money as well as a dreadful invasion of privacy, often casting suspicion on innocent people.”

“The way to detect drug or alcohol problems,” Edwards added, “is for members to closely supervise their staffs and their work, which they should always be doing anyway.”

Federal law requires all federal agencies, including the offices of individual congressmen and congressional committees, to establish policies to keep drugs out of the workplace.

However, the House Committee on Administration has ruled that House members cannot use funds from their office budgets to pay for drug testing because there are no provisions for it in federal law. Rohrabacher’s legislation would reverse that ruling.

“We are specifically prohibited from using our office expenses to promote a drug-free environment through the use of random drug testing,” Rohrabacher said.

“I think it’s irresponsible for Congress to encourage one policy through laws in the public and private sector and then make that policy unworkable for our own offices.”

Aides said at least three congressmen--E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.), Joe Barton (R-Tex.), and Robert S. Walker (R-Pa.)--already test staff members for drug use, apparently paying for it with their own funds.

In Rohrabacher’s office, staff members are required to sign a letter pledging to avoid drug use and agreeing “to submit to drug testing, when and as deemed appropriate by Congressman Rohrabacher.”

If a staff member were to test positive, a second test would be performed, according to the terms of the letter. If the second test were positive, Rohrabacher said he would reserve the right to fire the employee or refer him to a drug counseling program.

If his funding bill is enacted, Rohrabacher said, he will contract with a private testing company to periodically test his staff and himself for drug use. (During his 1988 election campaign, Rohrabacher, 42, declined to discuss whether he had ever used marijuana as a college student.)

Among those joining Rohrabacher at Thursday’s press conference were Reps. C. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) and William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton). Dannemeyer said he had conducted drug testing among his staff several years ago at his own expense. All the staff members passed, a Dannemeyer aide said later.

“If we’re going to convince the American people that we, the political leaders of this country, are serious about stopping drug use in this nation, we have to set an example,” Dannemeyer said.

Prospects for passage are uncertain. The Rohrabacher legislation is co-sponsored by Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and a dozen other congressmen, Rohrabacher aides said. They said the bill probably would be referred to the House Committee on Administration.

“If it gets to the floor, it would pass so that in the next election members would not be accused of being pro-drugs,” Edwards said. “But we hope it does not reach the floor because it would be a serious constitutional violation.”

Rohrabacher noted that “once these funds are available, the public will be able to determine who’s serious and who’s not about the war on drugs by what policy they’ve instituted in their own offices.”