[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 10 (Wednesday, February 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H391]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               RANDOM DRUG TESTING FOR MEMBERS AND STAFF

  (Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I just returned from the Republican 
Members' retreat at Williamsburg, Virginia, and at that retreat the 
Speaker of the House, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrich), 
unveiled goals for our generation, of which the No. 1 issue is a drug-
free America.
  To honor that goal, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Solomon) and I 
have been attempting for the last year to institute random drug testing 
for Members of Congress and their staffs, and the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Solomon) and myself intend in the next month and a half to 
actually implement the rule that was established at the start of this 
Congress that there shall be such a random drug testing plan for 
Members of Congress and their staffs.
  Mr. Speaker, if we are going to have a drug-free America, the House 
of Representatives must set the positive example and must take such 
measures as necessary to ensure that the Congress itself is drug free, 
and in my opinion, random drug testing must be a part of that plan.

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