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U.S. Energy Department to Issue Fewer Polygraph Tests, Official Says The U.S. Energy Department plans to reduce using polygraph tests to screen employees who work on nuclear weapon-related issues, a senior official said yesterday. In testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow said the new policy would probably reduce the number of polygraph tests administered from about 20,000 to 4,500. Energy has come under fire over the last year for its polygraph policy and has come to agree with some of the criticism it has received, McSlarrow said. For example, a U.S. National Academy of Sciences panel released a report last October saying polygraph testing was too flawed for use in security screening, according to the New York Times. As a result of the criticism, Energy officials proposed “substantial changes” in the tests’ routine use, McSlarrow said. The new policy does not mean, however, that the department will cease using polygraph testing all together, he said. “No one has suggested that we abandon their use, or that we hire people and entrust them with national defense information with no prior checks or reviews whatsoever,” McSlarrow said. Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) yesterday praised Energy’s decision to revise its polygraph testing policy. “This is a smart decision,” Domenici said. “I have been appalled by the DOE’s continued massive use of polygraph tests in the wake of a national study condemning the reliability of these tests. Our national scientists deserve better,” he said (William Broad, New York Times, Sept. 5).
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