On Sunday, 7 June 2026, on CNN’s State of the Union weekly program, Dana Bash interviewed U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Vice Chairman Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) about President Trump’s appointment of William J. “Bill” Pulte to serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence, replacing DNI Tulsi Gabbard, who announced in May that she would be stepping down owing to her husband’s recent cancer diagnosis.
About midway through the interview, apparently referring to prepared notes, Bash asked Warner whether Pulte should be polygraphed:
Dana Bash: You know polygraphs are usually required for access to intelligence—class—the community’s classified network. They’re not always mandatory for high-ranking appointees. Should Pulte be required to take a polygraph?
Mark Warner: Absolutely! And he needs to have a background check….
It is regrettable that Senator Warner would think that anyone should be polygraphed. The National Research Council concluded more than two decades ago that “[polygraph testing’s] accuracy in distinguishing actual or potential security violators from innocent test takers is insufficient to justify reliance on its use in employee security screening in federal agencies.”
The U.S. government’s misplaced reliance on the pseudoscience of polygraphy undercuts national security while each year needlessly causing career harm to thousands of applicants and employees.
It is well past time that Congress enact a Comprehensive Employee Polygraph Protection Act closing the government loophole that excludes public employees from the protections enjoyed by most other Americans since 1988.