Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) said in an interview that he believes members of the House and Senate should be subjected to random drug testing.
The comments to USA Today Network come after the Louisiana Republican introduced legislation on Thursday which seeks to require senators and representatives be subjected to drug screenings once each term.
“Elected officials in Washington, D.C. should be subject to the same kind of random drug screenings that blue-collar, working-class Americans have to endure,” Higgins said of the proposal in a news release.
“Congress shouldn’t get to live by a different set of rules,” he said. “This effort is about maintaining accountability and ensuring sober service to … the people.”
In the interview with USA Today Network, Higgins joked that, “I have observed some behavior that would cause one to wonder,” in reference to his push to drug test his colleagues.
{mosads}Under the terms of the proposal, members of Congress would reimburse American taxpayers for all costs of the program, according to the release.
If a politician were to test positive for illegal drug use, they would then be reported to the Ethics Committee, where “appropriate and subsequent action would be taken.”
Higgins’s proposal has criticized been by some Democrats in Louisiana as a gimmick, but he denied that was the case, according to the USA Today Network report.
“This isn’t a stunt,” Higgins said of the legislation in the interview. “It’s not about shaming or embarrassing or ending members’ careers. It’s about our body adhering to the same standards almost every other working man and woman is held to on the job. We should be reflective of the people.”
Before running for the House in 2016, Higgins served as captain for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office.
He later rose to fame after creating a series of “Crime Stoppers” videos in which he displayed a tough persona commenting on suspects and promising redemption if they admitted to their crimes.