Agency Issues Guidelines for Federal Drug Tests

WASHINGTON — The Department of Health and Human Services on Monday published the clinical procedures that federal agencies must follow in testing their employees for drug use.

The final technical regulations published in the Federal Register are essentially the same as the department originally outlined more than a year ago.

Yet to gain final approval are guidelines drawn up by 40 separate agencies--thousands of pages in all--on the more controversial matter of how each agency will determine which employees to test.

Those plans are under review by the department to make sure each of the agencies has adopted the underlying clinical testing procedures in their own plans.

Once HHS completes that technical review, expected within a week or two, all of the individual plans passing muster will be forwarded to Congress for review.

Aside from the possibility that members of Congress could object to some of the agency plans, an HHS official noted that several employee unions have indicated that they are likely to challenge the agency plans in court once they are issued.

The HHS regulations published Monday call for water in the toilet stalls where the samples are given to contain a blue dye and for the urine sample’s temperature to be taken within four minutes.

Both are to guard against the person submitting a sample diluted with toilet water or one that was smuggled into the testing site. A monitor would be nearby, but would not watch the person give the sample.

The guidelines also include elaborate instructions on transportation of samples to make sure they are not mixed up and on the laboratory testing procedures.