[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S12055]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     DRUG DIRECTOR USE OF BIDEN DRUG BUDGET CERTIFICATION AUTHORITY

 Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I rise to offer some remarks on Drug 
Director Barry McCaffrey's decision to decertify the Defense 
Department's proposed antidrug budget for fiscal 1999.
  At the outset, let me state that I support General McCaffrey's 
decision to request that the Defense Department increase its budget 
request by $140 million for the antidrug initiatives the General 
identifies: $24 million to boost antidrug task forces on the border to 
help implement the United States-Mexico Declaration signed by 
Presidents Clinton and Zedillo in May, 1997; $75 million for enfocement 
and interdiction to reduce the flow of cocaine out of the Andean 
Region; $30 million for boost National Guard drug efforts on the 
southern border; and $12 million to target drug trafficking criminal 
activity in the Caribbean.
  Even beyond the specifics of this issue, I am greatly heartened by 
the fact that General McCaffrey has chosen to exercise this important 
budget-setting authority. I must admit that I have been frustrated 
that, until General McCaffrey acted, no drug director had ever used 
this authority--not William Bennett, not Robert Martinez, and not Lee 
Brown.
  Let me also be up-front with my colleagues, one of the reasons I so 
strongly favor this decision is because I wrote this authority into 
law. For more than a decade, I debated with the Reagan administration 
and my colleagues to establish the Office of National Drug Control 
Policy. One of the reasons my legislation was so bitterly opposed for 
so long was because I put some real teeth into this legislation. And, 
of all the teeth, it is this budget authority which is the sharpest of 
all.
  Let me also explain to my colleagues that this so-called Biden Drug 
Budget Authority not only gives the Drug Director the authority to 
decertify the drug budget requests of the drug agencies, but it is 
crystal clear what must happen next. Just read the law: If the Drug 
Director exercises this authority, ``the head of the Department or 
Agency shall comply with such a request.''
  It does not get much clearer than that.
  To make one more point--now before the Senate we have legislation to 
re-authorize the Drug Director's office. Yesterday, the Judiciary 
Committee reported the bipartisan Hatch-Biden reauthorization bill. A 
bill cosponsored by Senators Thurmond, Coverdell, DeWine and Feinstein.
  It is my hope that not only will the full Senate pass this 
legislation before we adjourn, but also that the leadership of the 
House reject the unproductive and partisan approach it adopted a few 
weeks ago and come onboard the bipartisan Hatch-Biden bill.
  Nothing puts the need for a Drug Director in starker focus than 
General McCaffrey's action on the Defense Department drug budget. My 
colleagues should need no other example--though there are many others--
to recognize the importance of having a Drug Director.
  I urge my colleagues to support the General's decision on the Defense 
Department budget, and I urge my colleagues to take the concrete step 
it is within our power to do--pass the law to keep the Drug Office in 
place.

                          ____________________