[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 21, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2077-H2078]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     RANDOM DRUG TESTING OF HOUSE MEMBERS AND STAFF IS ILL-ADVISED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, the House is about to implement rule changes 
that will require random drug testing of all House Members and staff. 
Drug usage in this country, both legal and illegal, is a major problem 
and deserves serious attention. However, the proposal to test randomly 
individuals as a method to cut down on drug usage is ill-advised and 
should not be done.
  The real issue here is not drugs but rather the issues of privacy, 
due process, probable cause and the fourth amendment. We are dealing 
with a constitutional issue of the utmost importance. It raises the 
question of whether or not we understand the overriding principle of 
the fourth amendment.
  A broader but related question is whether or not it is the 
government's role to mold behavior, any more than it is the 
government's role to mold, regulate, tax and impede voluntary economic 
contractual arrangements.
  No one advocates prior restraint to regulate journalistic expression, 
even though great harm has come over the century from the promotion of 
authoritarian ideas. Likewise, we do not advocate the regulation of 
political expression and religious beliefs, however bizarre and 
potentially harmful they may seem.
  Yet we casually assume it is the role of government to regulate 
personal behavior to make one act more responsibly. A large number of 
us in this Chamber do not call for the regulation or banning of guns 
because someone might use a gun in an illegal fashion. We argue that it 
is the criminal that needs regulated and refuse to call for diminishing 
the freedom of law-abiding citizens because some individual might 
commit a crime with a gun.
  Random drug testing is based on the same assumption made by anti-gun 
proponents. Unreasonable efforts at identifying the occasional and 
improbable drug user should not replace respect for our privacy. It is 
not worth it.
  While some Members are more interested in regulating economic 
transactions in order to make a fairer society, there are others here 
who are more anxious to regulate personal behavior to make a good 
society. But both cling to the failed notion that governments, 
politicians and bureaucrats know what is best for everyone. If we 
casually allow our persons to be searched, why is it less important 
that our conversations, our papers and our telephones not be monitored 
as well? Vital information regarding drugs might be obtained in this 
manner as well. Especially we who champion the cause of limited 
government ought not be the promoters of the roving eye of Big Brother.
  If we embark on this course to check randomly all congressional 
personnel for possible drug usage, it might be noted that the two most 
dangerous and destructive drugs in this country are alcohol and 
nicotine. To not include these in the efforts to do good is 
inconsistent, to say the least. Unfortunately, the administration is 
now pursuing an anti-tobacco policy that will be even less successful 
than the ill-fated Federal war on drugs.
  I have one question for my colleagues: If we have so little respect 
for our own privacy, our own liberty and our own innocence, how can we 
be expected to protect the liberties, the privacy and the innocence of 
our constituents, which we have sworn an oath to do?
  Those promoting these drug testing rules are well motivated, just as 
are those who promote economic welfare legislation. Members with good 
intentions attempting to solve social problems perversely use 
government power and inevitably hurt innocent people while rarely doing 
anything to prevent the anticipated destructive behavior of a few.
  It is said that if one has nothing to hide, why object to testing? 
Because, quite simply, we have something to keep: our freedom, our 
privacy and the fourth amendment. The only answer to solving problems 
like this is to encourage purely voluntary drug testing, whereby each 
individual and each Member of the House makes the information available 
to those who are worried about issues like this.

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