[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 147 (Thursday, November 14, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2032]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     HOMELAND SECURITY ACT OF 2002

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. MARK E. SOUDER

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 13, 2002

  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this important 
legislation, which I believe takes historic and long overdue steps to 
improve the coordination of Federal agencies in protecting the United 
States against catastrophic terrorism and our borders against many 
other diverse threats.
  I rise as the Chairman of the Drug Policy Subcommittee and one of the 
co-chairs of the Speaker's Task Force on a Drug Free America to 
specifically address Section 878 of this legislation, which is a 
provision to create a Counternarcotics Officer. I originally included 
this provision as an amendment in the Government Reform Committee with 
bipartisan support from the Gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) and 
the Gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis). I also would like to thank 
Speaker Hastert, Chairman Armey, and Senator Grassley, who sponsored a 
nearly identical provision in the other body, for their strong support 
of this concept as the legislation has moved ahead.
  Many of the agencies that will be transferred to the new Department 
of Homeland Security are also our Nation's preeminent agencies for the 
interdiction of illegal drugs. The creation of the new Department, 
therefore, provides a unique opportunity to greatly enhance the 
operational coordination between these agencies and our efforts to keep 
drugs out of the United States. It also presents the risk, however, 
that these critical missions will be made of lesser importance and that 
resources will be allocated away from drug interdiction to deal with 
catastrophic terrorism. While some flexibility in this regard is 
appropriate, we cannot allow our efforts at drug interdiction to falter 
when almost 20,000 Americans die each year of drug-related causes and 
as we have increasingly seen the ties between the drug trade and 
financing for catastrophic terrorism.
  To address these concerns, Section 878 of the bill will establish a 
counternarcotics officer at a senior level to coordinate policy and 
operations within the Department and between the Department and other 
agencies on drug interdiction. The officer will also be charged with 
ensuring the adequacy of resources within the Department for drug 
interdiction, and tracking and severing connections between terrorism 
and the drug trade for the purposes of the Department of Homeland 
Security.
  As the author of this provision, I want to address two important 
points of legislative intent. First I want to reiterate, as I said in 
the earlier floor debate on this legislation, that it is my intention 
that the person appointed to this position must be a senior official 
within the Department with the authority to ensure the efficient 
conduct of the interdiction mission. We had originally designated this 
position as an Assistant Secretary position. After discussion with the 
Administration that designation was removed, but I want to make clear 
my intention that the appointee to this position should have a similar 
level of seniority and authority in order to make and enforce effective 
policy between the diverse agencies that will be headquartered in the 
new Department. I would also like to make clear my intention that the 
official designated under this provision should not be a ``dual-
hatted'' appointee who has other responsibilities or obligations within 
the Department, nor should they be affiliated with any of the component 
organizations of the new Department. The clear intention of this 
provision is to provide a single, neutral, official who will 
concentrate solely on ensuring effective drug interdiction and acting 
as a broker and arbiter between different agencies within the 
Department.
  Second, I would like to briefly address a couple of concerns that 
were raised today by the Office of National Drug Control Policy with 
respect to the provision that the Counternarcotics Officer will serve 
as the United States Interdiction Coordinator for the Director of the 
Office of National Drug Control Policy. That position is an advisory 
position to the Director with respect to national coordination of drug 
interdiction activities. The USIC is appointed by the Director, but in 
the past the job customarily has been filled by the Commandant of the 
Coast Guard. This provision of the bill was necessary in order to 
provide the ``clear lines of authority'' which the President just 
yesterday said were so important to have in Homeland Security matters.
  Within the Department of Homeland Security, the official provided for 
in Section 878 of the bill will be responsible for coordinating the 
activities of all department agencies on drug interdiction, including 
the Coast Guard. The USIC position needed to be addressed to ensure 
consistency and harmony on drug interdiction issues. It would have been 
completely illogical to have the Commandant report to the narcotics 
coordinator within the Department, but then have the coordinator report 
to the Commandant for the purposes of the National Drug Control 
Strategy. Because the counternarcotics officer is intended to have 
broad and more sweeping responsibilities in this area, the intention is 
simply to have the counternarcotics official assume the role as USIC, 
and I believe this is the only sensible outcome.
  I want to stress that this is in no way intended as any reflection on 
the Coast Guard, for which I have extremely high regard both in this 
particular area and in general, or the current or past Commandants, who 
have provided outstanding service as USICs. It is necessary incident to 
the reorganization of the interdiction agencies within the new 
Department, which I believe provides us with a significant opportunity 
to enhance our overall national effort. President Bush has clearly 
stated that Homeland Security should not be about ``turf'' or the 
prerogatives of individual agencies or government officials but instead 
about improving how we keep Americans safe. This provision was included 
in that spirit, and I believe that it ought to be embraced in that 
spirit by the Coast Guard and will be embraced in the finest traditions 
of ``Semper Paratus''.
  Director Walters made me aware, however, of some concerns which I 
agree merit careful consideration in the future. The USIC has been a 
senior advisor to the Director and ONDCP, and the statutory designation 
of the Homeland Security counternarcotics officer in that role within 
ONDCP removes the prerogative of the Drug Czar to appoint his own 
senior advisor. I am sensitive to this concern. I did not consider it 
in drafting the amendment simply because the Director has customarily 
and routinely named the Commandant of the Coast Guard to the position 
in the past, and my intention was to make a direct substitution. I want 
to make clear as the author of this amendment and as Chairman of the 
authorizing Subcommittee for ONDCP that it is not intended in any way 
to diminish the Director's authority over his office. I also continue 
to believe, however, that the USIC post must adapt to reflect the 
structure that has now been created within the Department of Homeland 
Security, and thus will not attempt at this late hour to revise the 
language in the bill. I will, however, revisit this issue as we 
consider reauthorization of ONDCP in the next Congress to try to 
develop a better formulation that will address each of these concerns.

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