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:
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/2000/10/31/9.text.1
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