[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 204 (Tuesday, October 26, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Page 59270]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-23228]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration


Prevention of Alcohol Misuse and Prohibited Drug Use in Transit 
Operations

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Department of 
Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice of calendar year 2022 random drug and alcohol testing 
rates.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces the calendar year 2022 drug and alcohol 
random testing rates for transit agency employers. The minimum random 
drug testing rate will remain at 50 percent, and the random alcohol 
testing rate will remain at 10 percent.

DATES: Applicable Date: January 1, 2022.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Iyon Rosario, Drug and Alcohol Program 
Manager in the Office of Transit Safety and Oversight, 1200 New Jersey 
Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590 (telephone: 202-366-2010 or email: 
[email protected]).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On January 1, 1995, FTA required large 
transit employers to begin drug and alcohol testing of employees 
performing safety-sensitive functions, and to submit annual reports by 
March 15 of each year beginning in 1996, pursuant to drug and alcohol 
regulations adopted by FTA at 49 CFR parts 653 and 654 in February 
1994. The annual report includes the number of employees who had a 
verified positive test for the use of prohibited drugs, and the number 
of employees who tested positive for the misuse of alcohol during the 
reported year. Small employers commenced the required testing on 
January 1, 1996, and began reporting the same information as the large 
employers beginning March 15, 1997.
    FTA updated the testing rules by merging them into a new 49 CFR 
part 655, effective August 1, 2001 (66 FR 42002). The regulation 
maintains a random testing rate for prohibited drugs at 50 percent and 
the misuse of alcohol at 10 percent, which the Administrator may lower 
if the violation rates drop below 1.0 percent for drug testing and 0.5 
percent for alcohol testing for two consecutive years. Accordingly, in 
2007, FTA reduced the random drug testing rate from 50 percent to 25 
percent (72 FR 1057, January 7, 2007). In 2018, however, FTA returned 
the random drug testing rate to 50 percent for calendar year 2019 based 
on verified industry data for calendar year 2017, which showed that the 
rate had exceeded 1 percent (83 FR 63812, December 12, 2018).
    Pursuant to 49 CFR 655.45, the Administrator's decision to increase 
or decrease the minimum annual percentage rate for random drug and 
alcohol testing is based, in part, on the reported positive drug and 
alcohol violation rates for the entire public transportation industry. 
The information used for this determination is drawn from the drug and 
alcohol Management Information System (MIS) reports required by 49 CFR 
655.72. To ensure the reliability of the data, the Administrator must 
consider the quality and completeness of the reported data, may obtain 
additional information or reports from employers, and may make 
appropriate modifications in calculating the industry's verified 
positive results and violation rates.
    For calendar year 2022, the Administrator has determined that the 
random drug testing rate for covered employees will remain at 50 
percent based on a verified positive rate of 1.08 percent for calendar 
year 2020. Further, the Administrator has determined that the random 
alcohol testing rate for calendar year 2022 will remain at 10 percent, 
because the violation rate again was lower than 0.5 percent for 
calendar years 2019 and 2020. The random alcohol violation rates were 
0.16 percent for 2019 and 0.17 for 2020.
    Detailed reports on FTA's drug and alcohol testing data collected 
from transit employers may be obtained from FTA, Office of Transit 
Safety and Oversight, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590, 
(202) 366-2010, or at: https://transit-safety.fta.dot.gov/DrugAndAlcohol/Publications/Default.aspx.

Nuria I. Fernandez,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2021-23228 Filed 10-25-21; 8:45 am]
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