The American Trucking Associations (ATA) is applauding a group of U.S. lawmakers urging regulators to remove barriers that have stalled the adoption of newer drug testing methods for safety-sensitive workers, including truck drivers.
Six members of Congress — including Andy Harris and Mike Collins — sent a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. calling for changes that would allow broader use of oral fluid and hair testing.
ATA president Chris Spear said delays in implementing updated testing policies are undermining safety.
“For far too long, HHS has dragged its feet on implementing science-based drug testing policy, and these bureaucratic delays have come at the expense of safety,” Spear said in a release.
While oral fluid testing was approved for regulated use in 2023, no U.S. laboratory has been certified to conduct it due to regulatory hurdles tied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
According to the letter, the FDA’s oversight framework — designed for clinical diagnostics — is not suited to workplace drug testing programs, which cover more than 6.5 million U.S. Department of Transportation-regulated workers.
Lawmakers are asking HHS to exempt workplace drug testing programs from FDA review and instead rely on existing oversight from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the National Laboratory Certification Program.
They are also calling on HHS to finalize long-delayed guidelines allowing hair testing as an alternative to urine testing for commercial drivers — a step first mandated by Congress in 2015 that has yet to be implemented.
The push comes as concerns grow over efforts to circumvent traditional urine tests. Lawmakers cited data showing sharp increases in invalid or substituted samples, arguing that newer testing methods could better detect recent drug use and reduce tampering.
“Meaningful modernization…remains blocked,” the lawmakers wrote, warning current delays threaten the effectiveness of federal testing programs.
ATA said modernizing testing protocols would strengthen safety across the transportation network by making it harder for impaired drivers to evade detection. You can read the letter here.
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