DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - July 18, 2007)
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
This amendment would restrict funds in the bill from being used to fund the Random Student Drug Testing program run by the U.S. Department of Education. The amendment would allow, however, the evaluation of the program being conducted by the Department to continue, and if the evaluation shows that the program is cost effective, the funding would be restored.
For the past several years, the Department has been using money designated for the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program to conduct random school-based student drug testing programs.
The problem is, Madam Chair, that this program has been studied and found ineffective. In 2003, the National Institute on Drug Abuse conducted a study that found that there was no difference between drug use in schools that tested for drugs and those that did not. The study found that the drug testing at schools did not affect either the prevalence or frequency of drug use.
Furthermore, such testing is very expensive. The cost of these tests can range between $10 and $75 each. Indeed, one school conducting random drug testing found that only a small fraction of its students actually tested positive, resulting in a cost of over $3,000 for every positive result.
My amendment would prohibit money from being spent on the drug testing program until the program has been shown to be cost effective, because we should not be spending taxpayer dollars on programs that are not cost effective. At this point, the drug testing program has not been proven to meet that standard. This amendment would prohibit the Department from wasting the taxpayers' money on student drug testing until the Department shows that the program is cost effective.
Madam Chair, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin, who I believe will insist on his point of order.
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