New Bill Mandates One Random Drug Test Per Term for Congress, Requires Members to Pay the Tab

This concurrent resolution, dubbed the “Exposing Congressional Drug Abuse Act,” proposes a straightforward but significant change to the rules governing the House and Senate: mandatory random drug testing for every single Member of Congress. The core requirement is that each Member must submit to one random drug test during their entire term in office. If you’re wondering who’s paying for this, the bill is clear: the Member themselves is responsible for covering the cost of their own test.

The Accountability Check: Who Pays and What Happens Next?

For most people working a standard job, random drug testing is a fact of life, but it’s a new level of scrutiny for elected officials. The resolution attempts to make this process ironclad by defining a “confirmed positive result” carefully. It’s not just a quick screen; it requires a second test using a different chemical process and certification by a medical review officer. Crucially, the bill explicitly excludes legally prescribed medications or common over-the-counter drugs from counting as a positive result. This means if a Member is taking necessary medication, they are protected.

Refusal Is Public Business

This is where the rubber meets the road on accountability. If a Member of the House or Senate refuses to take the required test, the relevant Ethics Committee—the House Committee on Ethics or the Senate Select Committee on Ethics—must publicly announce that Member’s identity. Think of it as a public shaming mechanism designed to enforce compliance. Beyond the public announcement, the committees are also empowered to take “whatever other action they deem appropriate.” This phrase is a bit of a wildcard; it gives the Ethics Committees broad, undefined power to punish a refuser without specifying any limits, which could lead to inconsistent or overly harsh consequences.

Ethics Committees Get New Duties

If a test does come back positive, the results are sent straight to the appropriate Ethics Committee for review under existing House or Senate rules. This keeps the review process within the established Congressional disciplinary framework. Furthermore, the Committee on House Administration and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration are tasked with quickly writing all the necessary rules to get this program up and running. While this procedural step is necessary, it also means the actual implementation—how the tests are administered, how the randomness is determined, and what vendors are used—will be determined by these internal committees, potentially creating friction or delays if they drag their feet on writing the rules. Ultimately, this bill aims to increase transparency and accountability for elected officials, but it does so by creating a new personal financial burden and granting significant, vaguely defined punitive authority to the Ethics Committees upon refusal.