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- NATION, Page 45American NotesTHE WHITE HOUSEHow High an Office?
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- George Bush supports random drug testing in the workplace,
- including the workplace where he's the boss. The Administration
- plans to conduct random urinalysis among more than 80% of the
- 1,850 employees in the Executive Office of the President, which
- includes the White House staff, the Office of Management and
- Budget, the National Security Council and other agencies.
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- Thirty EOP workers have reluctantly filed a class-action
- suit seeking to stop the tests, contending that the Government
- has no right to test them without reason to suspect them of drug
- use. Though there is little evidence of widespread drug abuse
- among Executive Office workers, their image was not helped by
- the disclosure last week that two White House guards were fired
- and one resigned last May after an investigation into
- allegations of cocaine use among members of the Secret Service's
- uniformed division. Two NSC clerks were also relieved of their
- duties. The testing is necessary, says White House spokesman
- Marlin Fitzwater, because the Administration must offer
- "leadership in providing random drug testing as a means of
- ensuring a clean workplace."
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