[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11954-S11955]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               DRUG CZAR BARRY McCAFFREY AND THE DRUG WAR

  Mr. KERREY. Mr. President, 2 years ago Senator Shelby, the 
distinguished Senator from Alabama, and I were managing the Treasury-
Postal appropriations bill on the floor at about this time of the year, 
I believe.
  And one of the actions that we had taken in our bill was to zero out 
the drug czar's office. And the reason that we had done that was that 
we were quite unhappy with the progress and the performance and, 
especially, the effort made to interdict and the effort here at home to 
try to get young people to quit consuming drugs.
  We were persuaded at the end of the day, Senator Hatch, Senator 
Biden, and the President himself, saying that they were going to make 
some substantial changes.
  Change No. 1 that they made was to bring on Barry McCaffrey, a 
retired Army general. I do not know how they talked him into it. 
Somehow they managed to talk him into coming back and being the drug 
czar.
  Yesterday, Mr. President, Barry McCaffrey sent a letter to the 
Secretary of Defense. Among other things he has done over the past 
couple years, this justifies both the President's confidence in him and 
Senator Shelby's and my confidence that action would occur.
  General McCaffrey sent Secretary Cohen, Secretary of Defense, a 
letter on the 6th of November saying essentially that:

       The National Narcotics Leadership Act requires that the 
     Office of National Drug Control Policy review the drug budget 
     of each department and certify whether the amount requested 
     is adequate to implement the drug control program of the 
     President. For [fiscal year] 1999, the Department of Defense 
     has requested $809 million for drug control programs, 
     approximately the same level as FY 1998. After careful 
     review, ONDCP has determined pursuant to 21 U.S.C. . . . that 
     this budget cannot be certified.

  Mr. President, this is a gutsy move. As you know, as everybody around 
this town very long knows, to send the Department of Defense a letter 
saying, ``We're not going to certify that your budget is adequate to 
accomplish the strategy that we have all approved in terms of fighting 
drugs in America,'' is a rather substantially gutsy move. And I support 
it 100 percent.
  Perhaps Secretary Cohen will have a response to it. I have a great 
deal of respect for Secretary Cohen as well. Perhaps he will be able to 
come back and give a justification as to why the additional money for 
the Andean Coca Reduction Initiative, for the Mexican Initiative, for 
the Caribbean Violent Crime and Regional Interdiction Initiative, and 
for the National Guard Counterdrug Operations are fully funded at the 
$809 million level.
  My guess is, he will not. My guess is that General McCaffrey has done 
his homework and analyzed it well and understands what the drug policy 
is supposed to accomplish. And he understands that as drug czar he has 
authority.
  In the past, drug czars have not exercised that authority quite as 
willingly. Barry McCaffrey did. And I hope this Congress supports him. 
All of us, when we are home, we will have townhall meetings. And if the 
subject of drugs comes up of, what are we doing? people say to me, ``At 
least I hear you say it's a war on drugs. Describe the nature of the 
war we're fighting. Are we winning it? Are we losing it? What kind of 
resources are we putting into it?'' I say, ``We've got a drug czar. 
We've got a drug strategy. And we're implementing that drug strategy. 
We're not going to hold anything back in order to be successful.''
  What General McCaffrey has done is he has called upon the Department 
of Defense to do just that. As I said, I have not seen Secretary 
Cohen's response to this letter. I am here this evening just to applaud 
the drug czar for having the courage that previously drug czars have 
been a little reluctant to show. And if it is shown that these

[[Page S11955]]

additional resources are needed in order to be able to answer the 
question at home in townhall meetings in Nebraska that that is what is 
needed to get the job done, then I hope the Congress will provide the 
Department of Defense with the resources and insist that the Department 
of Defense allocate in 1999 the resources in order to be able to get it 
done.
  I have not read all of them, the three- or four- or five-part series 
in the Washington Post on the problem of drugs coming across the 
border--so-called. There is not much of a border between the United 
States and Mexico. It is over 2,000 miles. And from what I have seen 
down there, there is not much to let you know when you are in Mexico or 
in the United States. And there is a tremendous amount of truck and 
automobile traffic and an awful lot of resources and money behind the 
effort to get drugs into the United States.
  It is corrupting Mexico, making it difficult for them to operate--an 
extremely violent world. And in this morning's paper, there is a story 
about Mr. Fuentes' doctors, three of whom were held responsible for his 
death, apparently, giving him a facelift or something so he would look 
a little different. They were found in concrete canisters along a road 
in Mexico.
  These guys play for keeps. From their standpoint, it is a war. From 
their standpoint, they are deploying the maximum amount of resources, 
their considerable amount of wealth and resources.
  Barry McCaffrey, a first-rate military officer, now our drug czar, 
when he says to me, ``We need additional resources in order to be 
successful in these four areas,'' I pay attention to him. And I applaud 
his willingness to be able to come to the Department of Defense and to 
this Congress and say, ``This is what we need to do in order to be 
successful.''
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that three documents be 
printed in the Record: One is the letter of November 6 that General 
McCaffrey sent to Secretary Cohen, and another is the document that 
indicates the additional resources that are needed, and the third is 
the ``Legal Authority to De-Certify Agency Budgets.''
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

         Executive Office of the President, Office of National 
           Drug Control Policy,
                                 Washington, DC, November 6, 1997.
     Hon. William S. Cohen,
     Secretary of Defense, Department of Defense, The Pentagon, 
         Washington, DC.
       Dear Secretary Cohen: The National Narcotics Leadership Act 
     requires that the Office of National Drug Control Policy 
     (ONDCP) review the drug budget of each department and certify 
     whether the amount requested is adequate to implement the 
     drug control program of the President. For FY 1999, the 
     Department of Defense (DoD) has requested $809 million for 
     drug control programs, approximately the same level as FY 
     1998. After careful review, ONDCP has determined pursuant to 
     21 U.S.C. Sec. 1502(c)(3)(B) that this budget cannot be 
     certified.
       To correct the deficiencies in the current FY 1999 
     proposal, DoD needs to amend its FY 1999 budget to include an 
     additional $141 million in drug control initiatives, which 
     will enhance operations in the Andes, Mexico, the Caribbean, 
     and along our borders. Details associated with these 
     amendments are highlighted in the enclosed document. Under 21 
     U.S.C. Sec. 1502(c)(5), DoD is required to include this 
     additional funding in its FY 1999 submission to the Office of 
     Management and Budget.
       The support of the Department of Defense (DoD) is critical 
     to achieving the goals of the National Drug Control Strategy. 
     Appreciate your leadership of DoD's important counterdrug 
     programs. The outstanding success of these missions in a 
     credit to the dedicated men and women of our armed forces. 
     Working together, the Executive Branch can structure a drug 
     control budget which will reduce drug use and its 
     consequences in America. Look forward to receiving the 
     Department's amended FY 1999 budget proposal. Your support on 
     this issue, which is so vital to our Nation's security and 
     the health of our young people, is critical.
           Respectfully,
                                               Barry R. McCaffrey,
     Director.
                                  ____


   FY 1999 Drug Control Budget Amendments Department of Defense (As 
                 Required by 21 U.S.C. Sec. 1502(c)(5))

       Andean Coca Reduction Initiative (+$75 million). This 
     initiative incorporates enforcement and interdiction measures 
     that will disrupt the cocaine export industry, These efforts 
     will include support for host nation programs to interdict 
     the flow of coca base and cocaine in source countries, as 
     well as expanded support to Peruvian and Colombian riverine 
     interdiction programs.
       Mexican Initiative (+$24 million). This proposal will 
     provide additional resources to reduce the flow of illicit 
     drugs from Mexico into the United States and disrupt and 
     dismantle criminal organizations engaging in drug trafficking 
     and money laundering. This effort will help implement the 
     Declaration of the Mexican-U.S. Alliance Against Drugs signed 
     by President Zedillo and President Clinton on May 6, 1997. It 
     will expand U.S. operational support to detection and 
     monitoring missions in Mexican airspace and territorial seas, 
     establish a joint law enforcement investigative capability in 
     the Bilateral Border Task Forces, and aid the Mexican 
     Government in developing a self-sustaining interdiction 
     capability.
       Caribbean Violent Crime and Regional Interdiction 
     Initiative (+$12 million). This effort will target drug 
     trafficking-related criminal activities and violence in the 
     Caribbean Region, including South Florida, Puerto Rico, the 
     U.S. Virgin Islands, and the independent states and 
     territories of the Eastern Caribbean. This will implement 
     commitments made by the President during the Caribbean Summit 
     held in Barbados.
       National Guard Counterdrug Operations (+$30 million). These 
     funds will partially restore reductions incurred since FY 
     1993 in State Plans funding, which includes support for 
     counterdrug activities along the border.
                                  ____

         Executive Office of the President, Office of National 
           Drug Control Policy,
                                 Washington, DC, November 6, 1997.
     Memorandum for Director
     Through: Chief of Staff
     From: Charles Blanchard, Director, Office of Legal Counsel

              Legal Authority To De-Certify Agency Budgets

       At your request, both General Counsel Judith Leonard and I 
     independently reviewed ONDCP's statutes to determine our 
     authority to certify national drug control agency budget.
       It is our firm and considered legal opinion that the 
     statute gives you two specific powers:
       (1) The power to ``certify in writing as to the adequacy of 
     such [agency budget] request in whole or in part . . . and 
     [should a budget not be certified] . . . include in the 
     certification an initiative or funding level that would make 
     this request adequate.'' [21 U.S.C. Sec. 1502(c)(3)(B)]; and
       (2) The power to ``request the head of a department or 
     agency to include in the department's or agency's budget 
     submission [to OMB] funding requests for specific initiatives 
     that are consistent with the President's priorities for the 
     National Drug Control Strategy'' [21 U.S.C. Sec. 1502(c)(5)]
       Most importantly, the statute makes quite clear that ``the 
     department or agency shall comply with such a [ONDCP] 
     request.'' [21 U.S.C. Sec. 1502(c)(5)] In our view, this 
     power to order an agency to place specific initiatives in the 
     budget request is the most important power.
       We have reviewed the proposed letter to the Secretary of 
     Defense, and believe that it is fully consistent with this 
     statute.

  Mr. KERREY. I yield the floor.
  Mr. BURNS addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.

                          ____________________