[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 16 (Thursday, February 26, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1079-S1080]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. FAIRCLOTH:
  S. 1690. A bill to provide for the transfer of certain employees of 
the Internal Revenue Service to the Department of Justice, Drug 
Enforcement Administration, to establish the Department of National 
Drug Control Policy, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Governmental Affairs.


                      the american priorities act

  Mr. FAIRCLOTH. Mr. President, I am pleased to today introduce the 
``American Priorities Act.''
  First, and most importantly, this bill corrects a serious imbalance 
in our national priorities by transferring one-third of the enforcement 
agents at the Internal Revenue Service to the Drug Enforcement Agency, 
by January 1, 1999.
  Second, and by the same time, the bill establishes a cabinet level 
department to marshall the resources necessary to adequately fight a 
real war on drugs. By so doing we would affirm our resolve to the 
American people and those abroad that this is a war we intend to win.
  Over the last 5 years, drug use, which slowed in the later 1980's and 
early 1990's, has increased with a vengeance. Particularly hard-hit 
have been our children. Schools are not safe; children are born 
addicted to crack and other hard drugs which are now cheap and

[[Page S1080]]

plentiful in most of our nation; and drug-related violent crime is 
soaring.
  Most troubling of all has been the creation of a class of violent, 
drug-addicted youth predators who terrorize our citizens with almost 
irrational and depraved violent crimes, from carjackings in shopping 
malls, to drive-by shooting on city streets, to gang-related violence 
in schools.
  Yet what is the Administration's reaction? It claims that the so-
called ``war on drugs'' cannot be easily won, that it will take 10 or 
more years to even begin to control the drug trade.
  Such a piecemeal application of resources is not a recipe for 
victory. We need a bold and dramatic shift in federal resources to end 
the drug scourge once and for all. If this is to be a true war on 
drugs, then we need a Desert Storm, not a Vietnam.
  The IRS has over 100,000 employees, 46,000 of whom are enforcement 
officials. Recent Congressional oversight has revealed that the agency 
has excess enforcement resources, which are not serving the public 
interest.
  Instead, these excess resources are often engaged in the bullying of 
law-abiding Americans. And it's no wonder. With over 100,000 employees, 
46,000 of which are enforcement agents, the IRS is running out of 
legitimate things to do.
  By contrast, the DEA, which is at the forefront of stemming the drug 
trade, has only 8,500 personnel, half of whom are special agents. If 
the war on drugs is to be won, we need to radically reallocate our 
national resources, and I would suggest that moving 1/3 of the IRS 
enforcement agents to the DEA is a good first step.
  Further, as a member of the Treasury and General Government 
Appropriations Subcommittee, I plan to offer a version of this bill as 
a rider to this year's budget.
  Mr. President, it is high time that the federal government started 
investing drug dealers as intensely as the IRS investigates American 
taxpayers.

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