Two Republican senators introduced legislation on July 29 requiring the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Laboratories to administer intelligence-grade polygraph tests to all applicants from nations on the State Department’s “Countries of Particular Concern” list and who lack green cards.
The as-yet untitled legislative proposal, S. 4634, is co-sponsored by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). The measure would require DOE to administer the polygraph tests to all applicants from countries like China, Russia, and Iran who do not have green cards and who are seeking employment in one of the nation’s 17 national laboratories.
The 17 labs grew out of the original Oak Ridge, Tennessee, facility that famously was part of the Manhattan Project’s research and development program that led to the atomic bombs with which the U.S. ended World War II in 1945….