Congressman Proposes Legislation to Force All Elected Officials to be Drug Tested

 Louisiana Congressman, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) wants to force every  single member of Congress to take regular drug tests and he wants them  to pay for the tests themselves. Higgins introduced the legislation this week which, if passed, will  force all federal lawmakers to be randomly drug tested once per term for  illegal drug use. According to the legislation, titled: RANDOM DRUG TESTING OF MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE SENATE. 

(a) In General.—Each Member of the House of  Representatives and the Senate shall participate in accordance with this  concurrent resolution in a program for testing for illegal use of  controlled substances. (b) Features.—The program under this concurrent resolution shall include the following features: (1) Each Member of the House of Representatives and the Senate shall  be subject to a random drug test once per term of such Member. (2) Each confirmed positive result under the program shall be provided as follows: (A) To the Member involved. (B) In the case of a Member of the House of Representatives, to the  Committee on Ethics of the House of Representatives for such review as  may be necessary under the Rules of the House of Representatives. (C) In the case of a Member of the Senate, to the Select Committee on  Ethics of the Senate for such review as may be necessary under the  Standing Rules of the Senate.

Higgins said he introduced the legislation to treat members of  Congress like regular working-class citizens who Higgins thinks are drug  tested on a regular basis. 

“Elected officials in Washington D.C. should be subject to the same  kind of random drug screenings that blue-collar, working-class Americans  have to endure. Congress shouldn’t get to live by a different set of  rules. This effort is about maintaining accountability and ensuring  sober service to We, the People,” said Higgins in a statement. 

For those who don’t remember, Clay Higgins, as Reason Magazine points out, is the same guy who last July recorded a  video of himself inside a former gas chamber at the Auschwitz  concentration camp. Higgins was roundly criticized at the time, not just  by the usual outrage mob but also by  the Auschwitz Memorial’s Twitter account. 

Higgins’ offense wasn’t the  worst thing in the world, but it was widely seen as disrespectful and  just plain dumb, especially considering that a stone engraving near the  entrance to the gas chamber asked visitors to remain silent. When questioned whether or not this drug test legislation was some political stunt, Higgins insisted that he is serious. “This isn’t a stunt,” he told the Monroe News Star.  

“It’s not about shaming or embarrassing or ending members’ careers.  It’s about our body adhering to the same standards almost every other  working man and woman is held to on the job.” But Higgins is way off here. Every member of of the American  workforce is not subject to drug tests — thankfully. While many jobs do  require random drug tests, the overwhelming majority of jobs do not. While Washington is certainly full of criminal politicians, the idea  that drug testing them is going to fix anything is pretty silly. 

In  fact, many of them would probably do well to start using drugs like  marijuana. If members of Congress frequently engaged in smoking pot, perhaps  they’d overturn the laws which require cops to lock people up for it. If more members of Congress smoked weed, perhaps they’d be less apt to drone bombing children in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen.  Perhaps, Higgins should force Congress to take drug tests, and  perhaps they should have to have at least one cannabis-positive one per  year.