Building Careers and Shaping Public Policy

29 August 2001

The Honorable Carl Levin
Chairman, Senate Armed Services Committee
269 Russell Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Levin:

On behalf of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers-United States of America (IEEE-USA), I want to express our concerns about the federal plans to polygraph as many as 5000 additional employees at the nation's weapons laboratories, a requirement written into the FY 2001 Defense Authorization Act as signed into law on October 30, 2000.

While we recognize Congress' concern over recent security breaches at the federal weapons laboratories, we are concerned about this new provision for several reasons:

1. Recruiting and retaining high caliber technical people at the weapons labs is currently difficult because of low morale; this new polygraph requirement will only exacerbate these problems.
2. There are doubts that polygraph tests are completely accurate. Polygraph tests have been known to generate false positives, which can have a detrimental effect on the careers of important personnel.
3. Mass-production use of polygraph tests will inevitably lead to a much higher rate of false positives and missed negatives.

Blanket polygraph testing would be detrimental to the recruitment and retention of the brightest and best technical experts to work in our weapons laboratories. We suggest that consideration of polygraph testing be limited to only the most sensitive positions. In a September 25, 2000 report to Congress on Security at the National Laboratories, former Senator Howard Baker and former Representative Lee Hamilton contend that, "it is reasonable for the Congress and the American people to be assured that our nuclear secrets are safe and well protected. It is also reasonable for the [lab] employees to be assured that their contributions to the national security are appreciated and that they will be provided a safe and secure environment - politically as well as physically - in which to work."

IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc, created in 1973 to promote the careers and public policy interests of the more than 230,000 electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. If we can be of further assistance, please contact Bill Williams in our Washington office at (202) 785-0017 x 8331 or email at bill.williams@ieee.org.

Thank you for your attention to this important issue.

Sincerely,

Ned R. Sauthoff, Ph.D.
2001 IEEE-USA President

(Sample of Letter Sent to All Members of the
Senate and House Armed Services Committees)

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