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• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200590004-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 4, 2000
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: October 5, 1967
• Content Type: OPEN

FOIAb3b
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S- r c~c?a e ~, 1,761
S. 1035, AN ACT TO PROTECT THE
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF EM-
PLOYEES OF THE EXECUTIVE
BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT AND
TO PREVENT UNWARRANTEP
GOVERNMENTAL INVASIONS OF
THEIR PRIVACY
Mr. ERVIN. Mr. President, on Septem-
ber 13, the Senate passed S. 1035, an
act to protect all employees of the Fed-
eral Government from unwarranted-in-
vasion of their privacy in their personal
thoughts, beliefs, and activities. To judge
from the letters and telephone calls, I
believe that the action of this body gave
Americans renewed faith in Congress as
guardian-of the liberties of the people.
But the Senate only took care of half
of the job: much remains. to be done.
The responsibility for steering this bill
on A o the Presidential signature now
rests with the House of Representatives.
S. 1035 Is pending before a subcommit-
tee of the Post Office and Civil Service
Committee, together with several com-
panion bills. Among sponsors of these
measures are Representatives Rzuss,
GALIFIANAKIS, REINECKE, CUNNINGHAM,
WATSON, Moss, MATSUNAGA, LONG, LEN-
NON, and FULTON.
The yea-and-nay vote on the passage of
S. 1035 shows the overwhelmingly broad
bipartisan support for, the proposal. The
hearing record and subcommittee investi-
gation of the denial of employee privacy
amply demonstrate the urgent need for
such guarantees. It is my hope that the
House will have the opportunity to act
on the bill at this session.
Under unanimous consent I Include in
the REcoRD at this point a number of ar-
ticles and editorials commenting on
S. 1035 and invasion of privacy. These are
from the Gastonia, N.C., Gazette, August
31, 1967; the WiliningtQn, N.C., Morning
Star, September 15, 1967; the Washing-
ton Post, September 16, 1967; the Chris-
tian Science Monitor, September 18,
1967; the St. Louis, Mo., Post-Dispatch,
September- 21, 1967; the Charlotte, N.C.,
Observer, September 14, 1967, article by
James K, Batten; the Nation, September
25, 1967; Press, Pittsburgh, Pa., Septem-
ber 23, 1967; the Sentinel, Chicago, Ill.,
September 21, 1967; the Washington
Daily News, September 21, 1967; News-
day, Garden City, N.Y., ' article by Clay-
ton Fritchey, ? September 20, 1967; the
Washington Daily News, September 15,
1967; the Charlotte, N.C., News, Septem-
ber 2, 1967; the News Sentinel, Knoxville.
Tenn., August 30, 1967, article by Mar-
shall McNeil; Federal Employees .News
Digest, edited by Joseph Young, Septem-
ber 25, 1967; and Post Herald, Birming-
ham, Ala., September 21, 1967.
There being no objection, the items
were ordered to be printed in the REC-
ORD, as follows:
[From the Gastonia (N.C.) Gazette, Aug. 31.
1967)
THE SENATOR Has GOOD CAUSE FOR BEING
Rn.ED
North Carolina's Sen. Sam J. Ervin Jr. got
riled again. And again there will be a lot of
people who won't understand why.
From Washington it waq reported that the
Senator was red-faced, and editorialized that
he was furious, because, as he saw it, the
Central Intelligence Agency thinks it has a
right to "stand above the law."
The Senator does not want the secret CIA
organization to have the power to ask em-
ployees and applicants for employment about
such personal matters as family relation-
ships, religious beliefs, and sex habits.
And he resented the CIA's maneuvering in I
legislative places to win elmination of his bill
which would safeguard people from such in-
vasions.
Further, the Senator left no doubt that he
Considers the CIA is not only overstepping
proper procedure and : denying personal
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 Altwed For Release 2000/C NdRLSSRONAL RECORD 20 SENATE
rights, but also is acting illegally by lobby-
ing as a federal agency on pending legisla-
tion.
"They want the unmitigated right to kick
federal employees around and deny them the
basic rights which belong to every Ameri-
can," Senator Ervin charged. That is strong
language for the usually cautious man. And
it is forceful language, considering that he
i.; a member of the Senate Armed Services
Committee which is supposed to have juris-
diction over the CIA.
There is really no cause for failing to un-
derstand the Senator's attitude. It is the
same attitude which has governed his words
and actions in many other matters.
Senator Ervin understands perfectly well-
that the CIA and the National Security,,
Agency-or some agencies by ~ whatever
names-have a vitally important job to do.
As long as nations of people build fences
around themselves and regard those on the
outside as foreign and potential enemies,
there will continue to be a need for what
used to be called spying and counterspying.
Both demand more than a little secrecy
and a great deal of security within them-
selves.
Neither can ever be completely achieved.
For that reason security agencies are always
prone to push harder and harder for addi-
tional tools and additional powers.
In that, they are no different from any
other close-knit pressure group. And, like
every other pressure group, they come to a
point where benefits gained have so dimin-
ished that they are not worth the cost.
That point comes very early when the
cost is in terms of the individual person's
rights. When those rights are lost, whatever
security agency we have, it is no better than
its counterpart in Moscow or pre-war Ger-
many. We shall have spent our real treasure
trying to protect it.
All this Senator Ervin knows.
And all this is only a part of why he has
appeared over and over again struggling for
recognition of the person first. It happens'
that Senator Ervin is an American. He finds
the case for the individual extraordinarily
well said in the Constitution. So that is where
he makes his stand. -
If he were an Englishman, he would make
the same fight, taking his stand on whatever
basic statement of rights he found in the law.
So he rises to the cause of the individual.
He knows that every time a pressure group
wins for itself, whatever the excuse or justifi-
cation, every individual man loses.
In short, human rights.have to take prec-
edence over all. And those rights are the
poverty of individual men and women, not of
clubs, associations, unions, races, or govern-
ment agencies.
Senator Ervin is usually called a conserva-
tive. The fact is, he is the most liberal be-
li,iver in democracy one could find.
[From the Wilmington (N.C.) Morning Star,
Sept. 15, 1967]
Tim RIGHT OF PRIVACY '
If ever an individual member of the Con-
gress deserved credit for almost single-
handedly protecting the privacy of the
American citizen it must go to North Caro-
lina's Sen. Sam J. Ervin, Jr.
For months and years Sen. Ervin has been
campaigning against the "Big Brother Is
Watching You" technique so vividly related
by George Orwell in the - frightening book,
"1984".
Success came at long last for Sen. Ervin
Wednesday when the U.S. Senate voted 79
to 4 to keep Uncle Sam's nose out of the
private lives of federal employees. The legis-
lation would prevent applicants for govern-
ment jobs from having to undergo question-
ing about sex, religion and personal relation-
ships. The bill now goes to the House.
The North Carolina Democrat was forced
to go along with partial exemptions in the
case . of the CIA; the National Security
Agency and the FBI, which will be permit-
ted to use lie detectors and psychological
tests during job interviews. No one can have
much quarrel with this compromise in such
sensitive areas.
During recent years, the invasion of pri-
vacy of the American citizens has grown to
irritating proportions. His eating habits, his
drinking habits, whether he's happily mar-
ried, where was he on the night of July 3,
1953-all of these absurd queries are hurled
at him at some time during his daily exist-
ence. He is even harried on the telephone as
to his personal habits.
Sen. Ervin, under considerable adverse
pressure from federal agencies, has just
about won the good fight as a starter, It is
to be hoped that the House goes along with
the Senate and that President Johnson signs
the measure into law.
[From the Washington (D.C.) Post, Sept. 16,
1967]
OFFICIAL PRURIENCE
Those who defend intrusive and intimate
questions regarding the private sexual lives
of Government employes and job applicants
argue that such interrogation reveals much
that may help protect national security. Per-
haps they do not quite realize how much they
reveal about themselves. Probing the privacy
of young men and women who want to work
for their country may gratify arcane needs,
of the probers and may provide amusing ma-
terial for coffee-break and cocktail conver-
sation; but it has by no means been demon-
strated that it has any utility whatever for
judging fitness or reliability for Government
employment. -
Effective recruiting is a vital element of
national security. A civil service that can
enlist the best graduates of the Nation's
colleges can contribute a great deal to na-
tional strength. But of course able men and
women want to work for agencies that treat
them fairly and with dignity and that respect
their fundamental rights. Some of the ques-
tions asked of job applicants by so-called
security agencies-Senator Sam Ervin gave
a number of disgusting examples in the
course of Wednesday's Senate debate on his
bill to protect the privacy of Federal em-
ployes-are as pointless as they are prurient.
They not only serve no purpose in screening
the unfit; they outrage the healthy and make
the Federal service repugnant to them.
The Senate passed Senator Ervin's bill
overwhelmingly on Wednesday as, indeed, it
should have done. But it adopted exemp-
tions for the Central Intelligence Agency, the
National Security Agency and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. It is a reflection on
these agencies that they should want to be -
exempted. It is a reflection on the judgment
of the first two-the FBI has long since
learned better-that they want to place re-
liance in judging the candor of persons un-
der investigation on those discredited instru-
ments of contemporary witchcraft, lie de-
tectors. It is currently fashionable to dress
the lie detector up under the more hifalutin
name of "polygraph"; but by any name it
would he more sensible to rely on reading
the entrails of sheep.
The House has important work to do on
Senator Ervin's praiseworthy bill. It ought
to make its old-fashioned American decency
applicable to every agency of the American
Government.
[From the Christian Science Monitor, Sept.
18, 1967]
To PROTECT THEIR PRIVACY
Government workers and job applicants
have been asked by federal agencies all sorts
of questions about their private lives and
opinions-their religion and religious be-
liefs, roc-. national origin, family relation-
ships, sexual matters, finances, and outside
activities.
October 5, 1967
Sen. Sam J. Ervin, Jr. (D), of North Caro-
lina, along with 64 bipartisan cosponsors,
introduced legislation forbidding govern-
ment agencies to require or request current
or prospective federal employees to disclose
this kind of information about their private
lives.
Senator Ervin and his subcommittee on
constitutional rights had previously heard
extensive testimony complaining that fed-
eral government personnel procedures vio-
lated personal privacy. They concluded
that government has been gathering and fil-
ing personal information much of which has
little or nothing to do with a person's abil-
ity or qualifications.
The bill, soon due for Senate floor debate,
exempts from its provisions only employees
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It
makes special provision for the Central In-
telligence Agency and the National Security
Agency, but these are 1Zoth seeking the same
status as the FBI.
With technical advances making it much
easier to gather, store, and widely dissemi-
nate personnel information, it is all the more
important that Congress pass this "bill of
rights for federal employees." The rights
which this bill would protect are implicit
in the Constitution of the United -States.
But specific legislation is needed to erase
any doubt whether a man, by accepting em-
ployment with the federal government,
thereby bargains away - these rights. Some
government agencies, judging by their ques-
tonnaires and their psychological and poly-
graph tests, have apparently assumed that
he does. Passage of this legislation will make
it plain that he does not.
Senator Ervin put it more dramatically
when he declared that this bill is based on
the premise "that a man who works for
the federal government sells his services,
not his soul."
[From the St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch,
Sept. 21, 1967]
A MEASURE OF PRIVACY
Though the President and Supreme Court
have often spoken out against invasions of
personal privacy, the leading invader of pri-
vacy for some years has been the Federal
Government itself. To make the Government
set a better example, the Senate has now
passed by 79 to 4 a measure meant to uphold
constitutional rights of federal employes.
If the overwhelming Senate vote is not
enough to suggest the need for such a bill,
results of a long investigation by a Senate
subcommittee should prove it. For example,
the Senators found that one woman applying
for a Foreign Service job was asked to "an-
swer quickly and without any thinking or.
deliberation" whether these statements are
true or false: I believe in a life hereafter, I
read the Bible several times a week. My sex
life is satisfactory. Evil spirits possess me at
times.
An 18-year-old college girl told the Sena-
tors she had thought working for the State
Department one summer might be fun, until
a departmental interrogator began asking her
personal questions about her relations with
a boy friend. She lost interest in a federal
job.
Such intimate questions about family rela-
tionships, sex, religion and personal habits
(even dreams) were a familiar part of what
officials termed "psychological testing," in-
volving both questionnaires and use of poly-
graphs, the so-called lie detectors. The sub-
committee found that 16 federal agencies
had hired 633 polygraph examiners, though
it also heard expert testimony that poly-
graph results were not reliable. The FBI does
not use them.
Of course, federal officials defended psy-
chological testing on various grounds: na-
tional security, determination of fitness of
employes, even the need to provide medical
or other -aid for employes. The diverse de-
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October 5, 1967 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE
fenses did not make much sense. Senator
Sam Ervin of North Carolina, subcommittee
chairman, said the tests were both "useless
and offensive." "If the security of the United
States rests on these devices," he added, "we
are indeed pitfullyinsecure."
But the invasion of privacy of government
employes does not stop there. The subcom-
mittee also heard of coercion against them
to buy bonds, to take part in some outside
activities and to avoid others, and to con-
duct any public writing or speaking ac-
cording to some official's preconceived rules.
To make matters worse, this infernal med-
dling in private lives was not restricted to
so-called security agencies, but was spread
throughout the bureauracy. Nor was there
any relation between security and the grant-
ing of such elementary protection as a right
to counsel in hearings; the Defense Depart.
ment allowed counsel but, until recently, the
Civil Service Commission did not,
As passed by the Senate, Senator Ervin's
bill is aimed specifically at all these mal-
practices, exempting only the three major in-
telligence agencies: the CIA, NSA and FBI.
The military is covered by its own rules.
For other federal departments, the bill pro-
hibits bureaucratic demands that employes
disclose their race, religion or national origin
or take psychological or polygraph tests in-
volving family, sex and religion. The measure
bars demands that employes engage in out-
side activities or report those of a voluntary
nature. It prohibits coercion as to charitable
gifts and bonds and in political matters. It
also requires the right to counsel In disci-
plinary hearings.
Senator Ervin deserves a great deal of
credit for disclosing the Big Brotherly opera-
tions of government and proposing to put an
end to them. As a practical matter, such in-
vasions of a citizen's rights, innermost
thoughts and beliefs can only discourage
sound federal employment practices. But the
principle involved is far more important.
The principle is the Constitutional one of
protecting private thoughts from intrusion.
When the Government itself assumes the
privileges of keyhole aristocracy it should, as
Senator Ervin said, "disturb every American
who takes pride in his government." We hope
the House will be as disturbed as the Senate
proved to be.
[From the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, Sept.
14, 1967]
ERVIN'S PRIVACY BILL PASSES-WITH CIA IN IT
(By James K. Batten)
WASHINGTON.-The Central Intelligence
Agency lost its battle to be exempted from
Sen. Sam Ervin's "bill of rights" for govern-
ment employes Wednesday as the Senate ap-
proved the bill, 79 to 4.
Ervin called the vote "a great victory for
human rights and human dignity." But Sen-
ate defenders of the CIA warned that the bill
could hamper U.S. intelligence efforts all over
the world.
Most of the four-hour debate centered on
the use of lie-detector and psychological tests
to screen out homosexuals and other unde-
sirables applying for jobs with the. CIA and
the National Security Agency. The Ervin bill
would sharply limit the use of such tests.
Sen. Henry M. Jackson, D-Wash., a member
of the Senate's CIA watchdog committee,
claimed that more than 10 "definite security
risks" were screened out by the CIA last year
after other methods failed to identify them.
Ervin remarked that two cryptographers
who worked for the National Security Agen-
cy, William H. Martin and Vernon F. Mitchell,
both had passed lie-detector tests before they
defected to Russia in 1960.
"A man that will believe in polygraph tests
will believe in witchcraft," Ervin declared.
The question of exempting the CIA and
the NSA from the Ervin bill never came to a
showdown, reportedly because a nose count
convinced Jackson,. Son. John Stennis, D-
Miss., and Sen. Richard B. Russell, D-Ga.,
that they would lose.
Stennis and his allies stayed in close touch
with the CIA and NSA throughout the after-
noon's debate. At least four agents from the
CIA and the NSA watched the proceedings
from the gallery, ducking out frequently to
confer with strategists in the cloakrooms be-
low.
The CIA, particularly, had fought hard to
escape coverage by the bill. Just before the
Labor Day recess, the Ervin bill was pulled
off the Senate agenda on short notice in re-
sponse to CIA request for time to plead its
case.
CIA Director Richard Helms and other
agents visited a number of senators shortly
thereafter, insisting that the bill would
cause serious problems for the super-secret
intelligence agency. But apparently their ef-
forts failed to sway the Senate majority.
Ervin did yield ort one point in Wednes-
day's debate, and there were varying inter-
pretations of its importance.
The N.C. Democrat agreed to an amend-
ment permitting the directors of the CIA
and the NSA to designate officials within
their agencies to decide when special cir-
cumstances dictated use of otherwise for-
bidden questions on lie-detector and psycho-
logical tests.
Ervin originally urged the Judiciary Com-
mittee to require CIA and NSA, like all other
government agencies, to abstain from asking
employes and job applicants questions about
sex, religion, or family relations in the course
of lie-detector or psychological tests.
But the committee voted, instead, to per-
mit such. questioning when the direction of
the agency personally determined that it
was necessary to protect the national secu-
rity.
On the floor Wednesday, Ervin agreed to
permit an agency director to delegate such
decisions to "his designee," if he wished.
Whether such language would permit CIA
and NSA to continue as they have in the
past was not immediately clear.
Prospects for House action on the bill this
year are uncertain.
In general, the Ervin bill is designed to
safeguard the privacy of government em-
ployes from unwarranted intrusions by their
superiors.
Among other things, the bill would forbid
requirement that employes buy savings
bonds, make certain charitable contribu-
tions, attend off-duty meetings and report
on personal activities unrelated to their jobs.
"There is nothing in this bill which will
handicap the CIA or NSA in protecting
America against enemies of America," Ervin
told the Senate. "All this bill does is try to
make them have a proper respect for the
rights of privacy of their employes."
[From the Nation, Sept. 25, 1967] ,
HOUSE OF SPOOKS
Critics of the Central Intelligence Agency
have for years said that that house of spooks
is nutty; but for the most part such things
were said in the spirit of hyperbole. Now it
appears that perhaps they were right in this:
the CIA does in fact appear to be run by
kooks.
Assuming that an organization's sanity
can be tested by the manner in which it
hires and fires its employees, consider this
evidence of mental aberration: The CIA
uses handwriting analysis (according to The
Wall Street Journal) to test the character
and personality traits of job applicants.
This is scarcely a scientific or even a com-
mon-sense test, of course, but that doesn't
seem to bother the men who run the CIA. _
S 14251
beknownst to him, the specially equipped
seat would be recording his pulse, adrenalin
flow, respiration and skin dampness. It is not
known whether the wiggle seat has ever
been put into service.
What is known is that the CIA is using its
battery of ordinary lie-detector machines
with a mindless fury. Senator Ervin has
learned, through his own sources within the
spy agency (its top officials will no longer
talk with him) that more than 6,000 lie
tests were administered on both employees
and would-be employees during the last year,
and only thirty for counterintelligence pur-
poses.
Because of his psychotic affection for the
machine, CIA Director Richard Helms is
frantically determined that Congress shall
not include his agency under the pending
bill to outlaw lie-detector tests and to pro-
hibit any government agency from asking
a job applicant such things as whether he
ever had sexual relations with an animal,
whether'he slept with his wife before mar-
riage, whether he urinates more than other
people, or whether he believes in the Second
Coming. Helms has lobbied furiously in the
Senate to keep the privilege of asking CIA.
workers questions of this sort, and he will
undoubtedly now go to work on the House
to defend his bureaucratic voyeurism.
He is especially interested in having the
right to use the lie detector to hunt for
homosexuals. But the reason is not-clear.
Does he wish to get rid of them as security
risks? Or does he want to recruit them as
agents? The latter is rumored and the rumor
has been published, even in the highly re-
sponsible Christian Science Monitor. Helms
has not denied the published rumors. Sen-
ator Ervin-certainly no defender of Helms-
feels, however, that not even the CIA is that,
dumb. But even assuming the CIA wants to
use the lie detector to weed out homosexuals,
this makes little sense.
In one of the closed sessions of the Senate
subcommittee considering Er?vin's bill, Sen.
Birch :Bayh of Indiana, a close friend of
Helms, argued with Ervin: "Sam, if the Rus-
sians find a queer on the CIA payroll, they
can intimidate him and put him to their
own service." To which Ervin responded
tiredly: "Yeah? And how are the Russians
going to find him-with a lie detector?"
But logic, as Ervin has discovered, isn't the
best of weapons to use in fighting for legis-
lation.
[From the Pittsburgh (Pa) Press, Sept. 23,
1967]
PRIVACY FOR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
Largely through the long effort of Sen. Sam
J. Ervin of North Carolina, the Senate has
passed and sent to the House a bill designed
to protect Government employes from un-
necessary invasions of their privacy by zeal-
ous superiors or other official stuffed shirts.
In view of the evidence uncovered by a
Senate committee, the bill not only is badly
needed but long ouverdue. And it is a dis-
gusting reflection on the petty-minded Gov-
ernment officials who not only tolerated this
nonsense but promoted it.
In support of the bill, Sen Roman Hruska
of Nebraska said employes had been coerced
into revealing highly personal information,
forced to account for off-duty hours and
compelled to donate time and money to as-
sorted projects-among other things. Some of
the intimate questions asked of job appli-
cants were outrageous.
As passed by the Senate the bill attempts
to outlaw such practices as requiring em-
ployes to attend lectures or take part in ac-
tivities unrelated to their jobs, quizzing them
Carolina came up with the fascinating in-
formation that at least as late as 1963 the
CIA was financing the development of a
"wiggle seat," a sly kind of lie detector. The,
job applicant would be seated in a plain-
looking chair during his interview; but un-
forcing them to attend political meetings; or
to buy bonds or contribute to charities.
In short, it is a sweeping bill to do away
with "big brotherism."
The Senate action is proper and the same
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citizens who are increasingly subjected to [From the Washington (D.C.) Daily News, but that a nervous or excitable individual,
prying, irrelevant questions from nib-noses Sept. 21, 1967]
in and out of Government. or an individual who resents being insulted,
PRIVACY BY STATUTE no matter how truthful he may be, is not
[Prom the Chicago (111.) Sentinel, Sept. 21, Largely thru the long effort of Sen. Sam J. likely to do so."
19671 Ervin of North Carolina, the Senate has This view is supported by the Warren Corn-
GOVERNMENT STALLING ACTION ON BILL BAN_ passed and sent to the House a bill designed mission, which said, "In evaluating the poly-
NING DISCLOSURE OF APPLICANT'S RELIGION to protect Government employes from un- graph, due consideration must be given to
necessary invasions of their privacy by zeal- the fact that a physiological response may
(By Milton Friedman) ous superiors or other official stuffed shirts. be caused by factors other than deception,
The Administration is seeking to stall ac- In view of the evidence uncovered by the such as fear, anxiety, neurosis, dislike, and
tion by the House on the Senate-approved Senate committee, the bill not only is badly Other emotions. There are no valid statistics
"Bill of Rights" for Federal employees that needed but long overdue. And it is a dis- as to the reliability of the polygraph."
would forbid Government agencies from re- gusting reflection on the petty-minded The new Senate bill specifically exempts
quiring job applicants to disclose their re- Government officials who not only tolerated the FBI, but FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover is
ligious background, national origin or race. this nonsense but promoted it. already on record against the polygraph for
The bill also prohibits lie detector and In support of the bill, Sen. Roman Hruska personnel purposes. Labor unions are also
psychological tests to force disclosure of of Nebraska said employes had been coerced - beginning to protest against their use.
other personal data. It protects individuals Into revealing highly personal information, The AFCIO Executive Council has "de-
,from other forms of coercion and invasions forced to account for' off-duty hours and plored" them "not only because their claims
of privacy, compelled to donate time and money to as to reliability are dubious, but because they
Five huge filing cabinets in the office of sorted projects-among other things. Some infringe on the fundamental rights of Amer-
the Constitutional Rights Subcommittee of of the intimate questions asked of job ap- lean citizens to personal privacy. Neither the
the Senate Judiciary Committee are bulging plicants were outrageous. government nor private employers should be
with complaints. Some of the complainants As passed by the Senate the bill attempts permitted to engage In this sort of police
told how the Government required them to to outlaw such practices as requiring em- state surveillance of the lives of individual
answer "true" or "false" to such questions as ployes to attend lectures or take part in citizens."
"Christ performed miracles." , "I go to activities unrelated to their jobs, Oncy e the CIA the and the National Security
church almost every week." . "I believe- them about religious beliefs ~or sexual z at- Agency resisted the Senate legislation, which
in the second coming of Christ." titudes, forcing them to attend political prompted Sen. Roman Hruska (R.-Neb.) to
ernm Subcommittee
Subcommittee chairman Sam Ervin, Jr., meetings, or to buy bonds or contribute to accuse them of bean the
North Carolina Democrat, felt that the Gov- g "greatest trans-
ent had no rig to force answers to charities. gressors" in using the polygraph. "What they
such inquiries. He satd that "anyone who In short, it is a sweeping bill to do away want," said Ervin, "is to stand above the law."
ru
wi of pri- hand, ches to understand what that " intrusion e who with "big brotherism." The U.S. Civil Service Commission, on the
vacy really means can find out by applying We applaud the Senate action and hope other fo t has ivat showsno a growing m-
the
for a really means job." the Caine protection eventually will be pro- ploye for the punt quietly, iof federal em-
-
all citizens who are increasingly sub- loyer. It has one tbut efficiently,
PRESERVATION or FREEDOM jested to prying, irrelevant questions from properly" in one of its investigators
report th t an
Sen. Ervin and the 78 other Senators who nib-noses in and out of government. Properly" inquiring into a report that an
voted for his bill, S. 1035, were concerned applicant had borne a child out of a wed-
about the nerservatinn of
"'u ech- SENATE PULLS PLUG ON LIE DETECTOR
nology. They noted not only the bold prob- [From the Washington (D.C.) Daily News,
log of religious beliefs under the guise or (By Clayton Fritchey) September 15, 1967]
security requirements but also, probes Into WASHINGTON.-It's hard to say what will U.S. EMPLOYEES' BILL or RIGHTS
philanthropic practices and even sexual be- finally become of the Senate's new proclama- The "bill of rights" Federal employees,
havior. tion of privacy for federal employes, because
Pressure by the Administration forced the the bill has yet to pass the House, but come passed Wednesday by the Senate by a vote of
exemption from the protection of the bill the what may it has dealt the of rs h machine . 79 to 4, - was sponsored by Sen. Sam Ervin
two agencies concerned with overseas sleuth- (lie detector) a witheringbl w. ? all P ll . thehemand n osors and and t d thosholes. We felicitate
ing-the Central Intelligence Agency and the Hopefully, the legislation ultimatel Will n t, sponsors who joined in
National Security Agency. Sen. Ervin told protect federal workers from all kinds of voting for the measure.
the Senate he did not favor even these prying into the most intimate recesses of coercion The bill would prohibit many forms of
exemptions. their private lives. Even if it falls short of Federal which have been practiced upon
The FBI was given the same authority pro- this, however, it has speeded the end of the employ, and, further, would forms
pro-
the CIA and NSA. However, the FBI polygraph, which has been used so indis- of them oainst many indefensible forms
said it did not use the objectionable testing crflninately in government hiring and firing, of invasion df their privacy. men methods on its employees. During the Senate hearings; the testimony special An rights to amehs to make a make apply CIA certain and NSA
Sen. Ervin said that his own research as against the lie detector, both as to its abuse emppply tests to
subcommittee chairman convinced him that and unreliability, was so devastating that its ployaes for security reasons, which is only
polygraph machines (lie detectors) "are to.- ' further use, outside of government as well Now t p Nilw the he bill wise.
tally unreliable for any purpose," He said as in, will undoubtedly be curtailed, Irre- goes yo the House where Purl until
that "if the security of the United States spective of whether the House approves the next yaction ear. probable will n wish delayed that the
rests on these devices, we are indeed piti- Senate bill or not. who year, We deplore this and wish ve been
fully insecure. Fortunately, it does not, for Federal' discontinuance is certain to ac- whole legislative
now. H could have been
then FBI does not use these examinations." celerate a similar trend at the state and lo- wrapped pigho now. However, a fine sem-
"But
"But even if it could be shown that pry- cal levels. A number of states, in fact, have has been made toward assuring Federal em-
chological tests and polygraph tests have already adopted statutes comparable to the that the bill rightful law before and we hope
mystical powers and can be used to predict one in Massachusetts, which says, "No em- that the bill rides into law before too long,
behavior or divine the truth, I would still ployer shall require or subject any employe From the Charlotte (N.C.) News, Sept. 2,
oppose their being used to probe the re- to any lie detector test as a condition of em-
ligious beliefs, family relationships, or sexual ployment or continued employment." Oregon, 19671
attitudes of American citizens," said the Rhode Island, and Hawaii have similar A CIA AuovE THE LAW
Senator, proscriptions. More are on the way. The more there is to say about the Central
An exemption was made for questions con- it is reported that no court in-the land, Intelligence Agency, apparently, the less
corning national origin where the informa- state or federal, will now permit a polygraph there is to say for it. The spy guys scare you
tion- is needed for security purposes in- test to be admitted in evidence. The reason when you can't seem them but St's much
volving overseas assignments. for this, according to Sen. Sam J. Ervin (D- worse when you can.
Under the pending legislation, Govern- N.C.) a former judge, is that "the machine First, the CIA refused to appear In hear-
ment officials found guilty of violating em- is of the most dubious value." It cannot in- ings on a Sam Ervin-sponsored bill that
ployces' rights could be suspended or fired. terpret itself, he points out, "but must be would limit the agency's blanket rights to
A three-member bipartisan board of em- interpreted by an operator. The machine pry into the lives of its employes. Then it
ployer rights would be created to police the merely measures physiological reactions as announced it would be glad to take part in
program. The board would hear cases and blood pressure, the pumping of adrenalin by a-you guessed it-secret hearing before the
make regular reports to Congress. the adrenal glands Into the blood stream, and ' Judiciary Committee. Then Richard Helms,
Although the watered-down bill passed the like, as a result of excitement and the new CIA chief, got busy and managed to
the Senate by a vote of 79 to 4, it faces an un- stimulation.
certain future in the House. The Administra- have the Ervin bill removed from the Senate
Lion is expected to seek futher modification. While presiding over a murder trial, the agenda.
to to An atseexp we be made a stall action, former judge said, he had given "close study" The performance prompted Senator Ervin
Government officials contend that there to polygraph them as when
e.." I came to the had sent to other Judiciary Committee em-
are already enough Administrative regula- conclusion," he says, "that a brazen liar can bers accusing the CIA of trying to stand
Lions to safeguard employee rights. pass a polygraph test without any difficulty above the law and of active and illegal lob-
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 6qvq F-elease 2000}x; 01~~~5 S 14253
federal law forbidding agencies of the gov-
ernment from attempting to influence the
passage or defeat of legislation before Con-
gress and suggested that the CIA might leave
its lie detectors long enough to investigate
whether this statute has been violated,
An investigation of some sort definitely is
called for. It is no light matter when gov-
ernment agencies begin bullying Congress
or trading off favors for preferential treat-
ment. The applicable law in this case is vital
to protect government from the paralyzing
grip of an all-powerful bureaucracy. If this
matter is 'allowed to drop without fi)rther
comment, Congress will serve notice that the
CIA is indeed above the law.
[From the Knoxville (Torn,) News Sentinel,
Aug. 30, 19671
CIA Rocxs BOAT
(By Marshall McNeil)
WASHINGTON.-The Central Intelligence
Agency wahts its spies to be left out in the
cold.
It is asking the Senate for exemption from
terms of the proposed "bill of rights" to pro-
tect Federal Government employees from
uninhibited grilling about intimate details
of their family relations?sex life and reli-
gion.
The CIA request has caused the leadership
to delay until next month debate on the
"bill of rights," a measure co-sponsored by
50 senators and recommended by the Judi-
ciary Committee.
Thus CIA, swathed in the secrecy said to
be so essential to success in the shadowy
crafts of spies and counterspies, has stirred
up another public fuss, plus the ire of that
eloquent old parliamentary battler, Sen. Sam
Ervin (D-N.C.).
And the threat has been made that if CIA
persists In its request, in which it is joined
by that other supersecret bureau, the Na-
tional Security Agency, both may endanger
the partial exemptions already written into
the bill for them.
There are some who think that if CIA ever
Is compromised, It may have only itself to
blame.
USE LIE DETECTORS
The courtly Ervin discovered some time
ago that to get a Federal job some young
applicants were required to take lie-detector
tests and answer such questions as: "When
was the first time you had sexual relations
with a woman? Have you ever engaged In
homosexual activities? . . . Did you have
Intercourse with (your wife) before you
were married? How many times?"
The bill product of long hearings by Er-
vin's Constitutional Rights subcommittee,
would put an end to such questioning. It
would also prohibit:
Indiscriminate requirements that em-
ployees and' applicants for Government em-
ployment disclose their race, religion or na-
tional origin; participation in outside activi-
ties unrelated to their employment; reports
on their outside activities; or support of po-
litical candidates.
It would make it illegal to coerce an em-
p!oye to buy bonds or make charitable con-
tributions or to require him to disclose his
personal assets, liabilities or expenditures
or those of any member of his family unless
such Items would tend to show a conflict
of interests.
"Why," asked Ervin, "do these two agen-
des want the license to coerce their employes
is contribute to charity and to buy bonds?
1I) they not know how to evaluate a secre-
try for employment without asking for .
it she loved her mother, if she goes to
hureh every week, if she believes in God,
Itshe believes in the second coming of Christ,
1 her sex life is satisfactory . . . what she
ireanns about, and many other extraneous
:~ntters?"
Moreover, Ervin said, the bill already al-
lows CIA and NSA to use lie-detector or
psychological tests to elicit information from
an employe or applicant on his personal re-
lations with any person connected with him
by blood or marriage, his religious beliefs,
or his attitude or conduct with respect to
sexual matters. The only requirement is that
before such questions can be asked, the di-
rectors of CIA and NSA must make a personal
finding that such a test is required to pro-
tect the national security.
Ervin said he was furnished a 10-page
statement by CIA about thing's it objected
to in the bill, but-wouldn't you know!-
the statement was marked "Secret." He said
in response to it he changed the bill to meet
what he regarded as every relevant Complaint.
"The idea that any Government agency is
entitled to the 'total man' and to knowledge
and control of all the details of his personal
and community life unrelated to his em-
ployment of law enforcement is more appro-
priate for totalitarian countries than for a
society of free men," Ervin said.'
"The basic premise of (the 'bill of rights')
is that a man who works for the Federal
Government sell his services, not his soul."
[From Federal Employees' News Digest, Sept.
25, 1967]
BILL OF RIGHTS SNAG
(By Joseph Young)
The House appears in no hurry to take ac-
tion on the Senate-approved "bill of rights"
for government employees.
Rep. David Henderson, D-N.C,, chairman
of the House Civil Service Manpower sub-
committee to which the Senate-okayed bill
was referred, said his group has other legis-
lation pending before it that will receive
priority.
Henderson said he wanted to study the
Senate-approved measure to protect govern-
ment workers against unwarranted invasion
of privacy before he decides what action, if
any, to take.
"I guess you can't be against a bill such
as this," Henderson said. "But I want to study
it more thoroughly."
Indications point to Henderson's subcom-
mittee preferring not to take action until
next year. Since next year's session of Con-
gress will be merely a continuation of this
year, lack of House action this year would not
kill the measure.
But Sen. Sam Ervin, D-N.C., chief Senate
sponsor of the bill, Is anxious to -get' filial
approval by Congress this year. Incidentally,
Ervin deserves the great support and thanks
of all federal and postal employees for his
monumental efforts on their behalf. His
name belongs in that small roster of the
truly great champions in the history of Con-
gress on behalf of government employees.
The administration is opposed to the meas-
ure as approved by' the Senate and would like
the House to either kill it or modify it
drastically.
In the final analysis, it will be up to the
federal and postal unions to bring pressure
to bear on the Henderson group to hold hear-
ings and take action on the Senate-approved
bill. This the employee groups intend to do.
They strongly favor the measure and feel its
enactment into law is essential.
Individual employees can also help. Those
living in the districts of the members of the
subcommittee should contact their congress-
man and urge prompt hearings and action.
The subcommittee members are Reps. David
Henderson, N.C.; Charles Wilson, Calif.;
Richard White, Tex.; Lee Hamilton, Tex.;
Frank Brasco, N.Y.; ? H. R. Gross, Iowa; Ed-
ward Derwinski, Ili.; James Broyhill, N.C.
Also, letters to, Rep. Thaddeus Dulski, D-N.Y.,
chairman of the full House Civil Service
Committee; and Robert Corbett, Pa., the
group's ranking minority member, would be
helpful.
[From the Birmingham (Ala.) Post-Herald,
Sept. 21, 1967]
PRIVACY BY STATUTE
Largely through the long effort of Sen.
Sam J. Ervin of North Carolina, the Senate
has passed and sent to the House a bill de-
signed to 'protect Government employees
from unnecessary invasions of their privacy
by zealous superiors or other official stuffed
shirts.
In view of the evidence uncovered by a
Senate committee, the bill not only is badly
needed but long overdue. And it is a disgust-
ing reflection on the petty-minded Govern-
ment officials who not only tolerated this
nonsense but promoted it.
In support of the bill, Sen. Roman Hruska
of Nebraska said employes had been coerced
Into revealing highly personal information,
forced to account for off-duty hours and com-
pelled to donate time and money to assorted
projects-among other things. Some of the
intimate questions asked of job applicants
were outrageous.
As passed by the Senate the bill attempts
to outlaw such practices as requiring em=
ployes to attend lectures or take part in ac-
tivities unrelated to their jobs, quizzing
them about religious beliefs or sexual atti-
tudes, forcing them to attend political meet-
ings, or to buy bonds or contribute to chari-
ties.
In short, it is a sweeping bill to do away
with "big brotherism."
We applaud the Senate action and hope
the same protection eventually will be pro-
vided all citizens who are increasingly sub-
jected to prying, irrelevant questions from
nib-noses in and out of Government.
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