History of Flightline & Federal Drug Testing
September 15th, 1986.
President Ronald Reagan signs Executive Order 12564 requiring all federal employees to refrain from using illegal drugs, on or off-duty, as a condition of federal employment.
Two years later, it was Congress’s turn, when they passed the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988.
That, in turn, spawned the creation of Federal Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs (Section 503 of PUBLIC LAW 100-71).
Then, the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991 required drug and alcohol testing of safety-sensitive transportation employees in aviation.
The Drug Abatement Division develops and implements these drug and alcohol testing regulations for the DOT and FAA, covering employers, safety-sensitive employees and service agents. Rules are encompassed in the 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 40 and 14 and CFR Part 120.
This division also oversees the aviation industry’s compliance with drug and alcohol testing regulations, with on-site inspections, guidance documents, and policies.
The mandatory guidelines apply to executive agencies of the federal government, the uniformed services (with the exception of certain members of the armed forces) and contractors, or service providers under contract with the federal government. Exceptions would be the postal service and employee units in the judicial and legislative branches.
Although the Act only applies to federal employees, many state and local governments took the hint from the Feds and adopted similar programs under state laws, developing drug-free workplace programs of their own. (If you’d really like to get further into it, follow the link below to the alphabetical listing of the States and their applicable laws.)
Meanwhile, in 1988, Dr. Karl Morgenstein [one of the founders of Flightline Drug Testing] was the first to recognize these regulations as he then traveled to Washington DC to obtain the 1st Certificate number (E-SO-00008) to officially authorize Flightline’s administration of these programs under the law. Since then, Flightline has expanded into a national organization with an in-house Medical Review Officer (MRO) to provide a full service program for Federal and Non-Federal Employers.
A message from the Secretary of Transportation on the importance of this act.