President Clinton, in signing H.R. 4205, the National Defense  
Authorization Act for fiscal year 2001, took issue with the  
act's expansion of the Department of Energy's polygraph  
screening program to encompass some 20,000 employees and  
contractors: 
 
    ...I am deeply disappointed that the Congress has  
    taken upon itself to set greatly increased polygraph  
    requirements that are unrealistic in scope,  
    impractical in execution, and that would be strongly  
    counterproductive in their impact on our national  
    security. The bill also micromanages the Secretary  
    of Energy's authority to grant temporary waivers to  
    the polygraph requirement in a potentially damaging  
    way, by explicitly directing him not to consider the  
    scientific vitality of DOE laboratories.  This  
    directs the Secretary not to do his job, since  
    maintaining the scientific vitality of DOE national  
    laboratories is essential to our national security  
    and is one of the Secretary's most important  
    responsibilities.  I am therefore signing the bill  
    with the understanding that it cannot supersede the  
    Secretary's responsibility to fulfill his national  
    security obligations. 
     
The President's complete statement may be read on-line at: 
 
pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/2000/10/31/9.text.1]http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I...[/url] 
 
These remarks seem to be President Clinton's first public  
pronouncements on polygraph policy. Better late than never. 
 
The President is correct in stating that Congress'  
greatly increased polygraph requirements "would be strongly  
counterproductive in their impact on our national  
security." He might also consider that if polygraphs are  
strongly counterproductive in the Department of Energy,  
they may be counterproductive elsewhere in government, too. 
 
George Maschke 
AntiPolygraph.org