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ROCKVILLE, Md. ­­­— A hair drug-testing proposed rule has been sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, a top official with the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said at a meeting June 11.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A top Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration official updated truckers on the agency’s efforts to mitigate parking problems and the obligations for drivers as the agency moves toward implementation of the drug and alcohol clearinghouse rule.

The Senate has passed legislation with a provision that would require the Department of Health and Human Services to provide an explanation for a 21-month delay in issuing mandatory federal hair testing guidelines for safety-sensitive transportation employees such as truck drivers.

A Senate committee on May 22 unanimously approved a bill that would require the Department of Health and Human Services to provide an explanation for a 15-month delay in issuing mandatory federal hair testing guidelines for safety-sensitive transportation employees such as truck drivers.

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Members of a federal drug testing advisory board met in a closed session on March 21 to review a draft proposed rule. The rule would allow trucking companies to conduct government-certified pre-employment drug testing using hair samples, according to a top official with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

A glitch in the federal drug and alcohol clearinghouse final rule requires state licensing agencies to check the database for drivers who have flunked their drug tests, but fails to give state agencies the regulatory authority to take action by downgrading or declining to issue a commercial driver license to those drivers.

Beginning Jan. 1, truck drivers being administered random pre-employment and post-accident drug tests will be screened for four additional synthetic opioids, the highly addictive drugs that likely will require medical experts to consider prescriptions that balance pain mitigation with safety performance.

The U.S. Department of Transportation plans on Jan. 1 to begin testing truck drivers and other “safety-sensitive” transportation employees for the semi-synthetic opioids hydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxymorphone and oxycodone, the agency announced Nov. 9.

Canadian trucking associations are calling for a zero-tolerance policy for marijuana use among drivers as the country prepares to legalize the drug for recreational purposes in July 2018.

The percentage of U.S. workers in “safety-sensitive” jobs — a category that includes truck drivers — who flunked their federally-mandated drug tests increased at an “alarming” rate from 2015 to 2016, according to an analysis of drug testing data collected by the nation’s largest lab. Overall, the percentage of safety-sensitive workers who failed crept up year-over-year, the report said.