[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 138 (Monday, September 30, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H12180-H12181]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            DRUG USE INCREASES UNDER CLINTON ADMINISTRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Mica] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, I come before the House as we wrap up our work 
and leave Washington to report on one of the final hearings that will 
be held before the Congress tomorrow morning. This is a hearing that I 
requested, and I want to thank Chairman Zeliff of the Subcommittee on 
National Security, International Affairs and Criminal Justice of the 
Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, on which I serve, for 
holding that hearing. I want to thank Chairman Clinger for his 
outstanding leadership, particularly on the drug issue.
  Our Committee on Government Reform and Oversight and our specific 
subcommittee has tried for the last 18 or 20 months, since we took 
control of the committee and the Congress, to make a real national drug 
policy a priority of this Congress and this country.
  The reason for the hearing tomorrow is really quite disturbing. I 
found in reports that I received that shortly after assuming the office 
of drug czar, that General McCaffrey, who was appointed to that 
position by the President, did in fact, and we are learning more of the 
facts and we will find out all of the information tomorrow at the 
hearing, but did in fact receive a report, and I have finally gotten a 
copy of the report. The report was requested by the Secretary of 
Defense and prepared for the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for 
Drug Enforcement Policy and Support.
  This report was presented in March at a meeting shortly after General 
McCaffrey assumed the office of drug czar, and I am told that in fact 
he ordered that no one was to release the

[[Page H12181]]

contents of this report. In fact, this report was extremely critical of 
the Clinton administration's drug strategy, a failed drug strategy that 
in fact had dismantled interdiction, that had dismantled the use of our 
military, our Coast Guard and other assets in stopping drugs cost 
effectively at their source.
  This report in fact was given to General McCaffrey, and we are going 
to find out tomorrow if in fact he ordered that report buried. If he 
did indeed, it is a disgrace, and it is a sad commentary on his first 
step as drug czar, and I think he needs to answer for that.

  We are seeing the results of this failed drug policy and lack of a 
policy. The President, the first thing he did after taking office was 
in fact fire a majority of the staff, two-thirds of the staff in the 
drug czar's office, and then appointed a national health officer, 
Joycelyn Elders, who told our children, ``Just say maybe.''
  Then we had a President who just said nothing. In fact, when he did 
speak, and I have seen the clips from this on MTV, he said if he had it 
to do over again, he would inhale. I as a parent wonder what kind of 
message that sends to our children, and I as a Congressman wonder what 
is happening when a report like this is in fact buried and kept from 
the Secretary of Defense and kept from this Congress, that in fact 
substantiates that the Clinton approach to curtailing drugs on our 
streets and in our neighborhoods and in our schools is an abject 
failure.
  So tomorrow we are going to hear about that report. Now we are 
getting news reports, ``White House buries critical drug report.'' The 
study in fact supported interdiction, supported the efforts by the 
Reagan administration and the Clinton administration to crack down on 
drugs.
  Now, this Congress and the Republican majority have restored those 
cuts and are replacing those funds. In this budget that we have just 
passed in appropriations, there is a record $8 billion. Remember, the 
other side of the aisle, the Democrats controlled the House and the 
other body and the White House for the first 2 years, and it is their 
proposals to wreck a policy of solid accomplishment and get us into 
this situation where we have drug use increase among our juveniles in 
epidemic proportion across this land, and even in my district children 
and teenagers are dying of drug overdoses and heroin use and abuse.
  So in every category we see the results of a failed policy, and it 
must be changed.

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