The Nation - News from Aug. 7, 1989

The government is being urged to “aggressively implement” drug-testing of hundreds of thousands of federal employees as national drug-policy director William J. Bennett apparently reverses an earlier stand, the Washington Post reported. The final draft of Bennett’s anti-drug strategy also includes an endorsement of drug-testing efforts in the private sector and calls for federal agencies to test workers “to the maximum extent allowed by law,” according to a copy of the document obtained by the newspaper. The strategy’s endorsement is the first clear signal that the Bush Administration intends to pursue a sweeping federal drug-testing program that has generated intense debate and a wave of lawsuits.