[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 168 (Thursday, December 6, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12531-S12532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CONFIRMATION OF JOHN WALTERS AS DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG 
                             CONTROL POLICY

  Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, I want to congratulate John Walters, the 
new Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, on his 
confirmation by the Senate last night. I have no doubt that the hard 
work and experience he brings to the Office will greatly benefit our 
efforts to reduce drug abuse in our nation.
  I do wish he could have been confirmed much earlier, considering the 
challenges we face at home and overseas. In the last eight years alone, 
teenage drug use has almost doubled and, as I speak, terrorists, 
including those we are fighting in Afghanistan and across the globe, 
are using the drug trade to help finance their operations.
  President Bush nominated John Walters in early June, but he was not 
granted a hearing until October 10. Finally, on November 8 and five 
months after his nomination, John Walters was favorably voted out of 
the Senate Judiciary Committee, 14 to 5, with five Democrats joining 
all the Republicans in support of his confirmation. Seven months to be 
confirmed is not a credit to the workings of the Senate.
  It was disappointing that, of the small number of activists opposed 
to

[[Page S12532]]

the nomination of John Walters, a few carried on a campaign to distort 
his public policy positions. Americans would not have known if they 
just listened to these activists that John Walters believes that many 
first-time, non-violent offenders ought to be diverted into treatment. 
In fact, when he was deputy drug czar in the first Bush Administration 
under William Bennett, he helped secure increases in the drug treatment 
budget in four years that were double what the previous administration 
managed in eight. And it's also noteworthy that the previous 
administration enforced the very same anti-drug laws that some of John 
Walters' opponents today criticize, and the same administration made no 
effort to change them.
  I look forward to working with John Walters and hope his needlessly 
protracted nomination process will not discourage other outstanding 
Americans from considering public service to our Nation.

                          ____________________