[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 113 (Monday, September 12, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9902-S9908]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR SCIENCE, THE DEPARTMENTS OF STATE, JUSTICE, 
   AND COMMERCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006--Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.


                           Amendment No. 1648

  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 1648 on the CJS 
appropriations bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the pending amendment is 
set aside. The clerk will report the amendment.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Oklahoma [Mr. Coburn] proposes an 
     amendment No. 1648.

  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of 
the amendment be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To eliminate the funding for the Advanced Technology Program 
    and increase the funding available for the National Oceanic and 
 Atmospheric Administration, community oriented policing service, and 
              State and local law enforcement assistance)

  On page 170, between lines 9 and 10, insert the following:

       Sec. 304.(a) Notwithstanding the provisions in title III 
     under the heading ``National Institute of Standards and 
     Technology'' and under the subheading ``industrial technology 
     services'', none of the funds appropriated in this Act may be 
     made available for the Advanced Technology Program of the 
     National Institute of Standards and Technology.
       (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the 
     amount made available in title III under the heading 
     ``National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration'' and under 
     the subheading ``operations, research, and facilities'' for 
     the National Weather Service is increased by $4,900,000 and, 
     of the total amount made available for such purpose under 
     such subheading, $3,950,000 shall be made available for the 
     Coastal and Inland Hurricane Monitoring and Prediction 
     Program and $3,950,000 shall be made available for the 
     Hurricane and Tornado Broadcast Campaign.
       (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the 
     amount made appropriated in title I under the heading 
     ``Office of Justice Programs'' and under the subheading 
     ``community oriented policing services'' is increased by 
     $72,000,000 and, of the total amount made available under 
     such subheading, not less than $132,100,000 shall be made 
     available for the Methamphetamine Hot Spots program.
       (d) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Act, the 
     amount made appropriated

[[Page S9903]]

     in title I under the heading ``Office of Justice Programs'' 
     and under the subheading ``state and local law enforcement 
     assistance'' is increased by $48,000,000 and, of the total 
     amount made available under such subheading, not less than 
     $578,000,000 shall be made available for the Justice 
     Assistance Grants program.

  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, this is an amendment to start us down the 
way of reprioritizing our spending in this country.
  With the events of the last 2 weeks, the tremendous deficit we face 
already, and the significant problems we face in this country, 
especially in terms of methamphetamine, the Weather Service, and the 
Byrne Justice Assistance Grants, this is an amendment that will 
eliminate the Advanced Technology Program.
  There is no question that the ATP has done some good in its history. 
It has $140 million in budget authority and has, this year, $22.4 
million in outlays. But there has come a time when we need to make 
decisions. One of the things I have been consistent on in terms of my 
time in the Senate is insisting that we start reprioritizing the things 
that work and the things that do not work.
  The Advanced Technology Program was scrutinized at a hearing of the 
Federal Financial Management Subcommittee of the Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs Committee this year and had good testimony. I will 
not demean some of the positive things that have come from this 
program. There is no question certain positive things have come from 
it.
  However, GAO and the Comptroller General noted that 63 percent of the 
requests for grants through ATP never sought funds anywhere else. ATP 
is supposed to be the source of last resort on technology.
  I have put up a chart to show the American people who has actually 
been getting the funding. It has not been small businessmen. It has not 
been new ideas, innovation coming from small entrepreneurs. What it has 
been for is the major corporations in this country that have billions 
and billions and billions of dollars worth of sales every year, and 
billions in profits. Yet we are now asking the American taxpayer to 
take 30 to 40 percent of this ATP money and fund the likes of General 
Electric, IBM, Motorola, and 3M, just to name four.
  The fact is, good ideas will usually get funded. There is venture 
capital all across this country looking for good ideas, private capital 
that will fund great ideas. In this time of fiscal constraint, it is 
time we reprioritize what we do with this money.
  This amendment is intended to take the savings from ATP and put it in 
three different programs. One of the programs is the Byrne Justice 
Assistance Grants Program, which is markedly needed today in terms of 
drug courts, in terms of drug busts, in terms of helping the district 
attorneys and State attorneys general accomplish the very laws we put 
on the books in front of them.
  It transfers funding to the COPS Methamphetamine Hot Spots Program. 
There has never been a more devastating drug to our society than 
methamphetamine. It is growing like wildfire. As a matter of fact, 
attached to this bill is a methamphetamine bill that limits and 
restricts the sale of pseudoephedrine throughout this country. It is a 
compromise worked out by many of us on the Judiciary Committee, along 
with Senator Talent and Senator Feinstein, to put the brakes on the 
accessibility of pseudoephedrine in the manufacturing of 
methamphetamine.
  It also helps fund the National Weather Service for two hurricane and 
tornado monitoring and broadcast programs. Goodness knows, we need 
that. Different outlay rates for the different programs result in only 
$124.9 million of the original $140 million being transferred.
  In March, during debate over the budget resolution, Senator Levin 
offered an amendment supporting ATP. One of the reasons for that is 
last year Michigan got $31 million out of the $140 million. I can 
understand his desire to support that. But I would also note that 
methamphetamine is a growing epidemic in Michigan. Law enforcement and 
the Hot Spots Program to fund the breaking down, the taking of children 
out of areas that have been exposed to this tremendously derelict drug 
that is infecting and ruining the lives of hundreds of thousands of 
Americans is important.
  It is interesting to note that for every State in the United States, 
the average funding from ATP has been less than funding for the Byrne 
JAG Program. The results of this will place $48 million additional into 
the Byrne Justice Assistance Grants Program, $72 million into the COPS 
Methamphetamine Hot Spots Program, and $4.9 million into the National 
Weather Service.
  It is interesting to note, also, that many of those who oppose this 
bill are the ones who seek and have received the most in terms of the 
grants from the ATP program. If you look at California, where Senator 
Feinstein will be supporting this CJS bill, California actually 
received $31 million as an average from 1990 to 2004. However, with the 
Byrne JAG Program being reduced, their average of $58 million for that 
program will be reduced.
  ATP was created by Congress in 1988 to improve the global competitive 
position of high-tech industries in the United States. Very few of the 
things that came out of that ATP program accounted for the tremendous 
resurgence in the economic activities of the 1990s. Very few of the 
things have come out of the ATP program, although there have been some. 
One in Oklahoma in particular, Pure Protein, a company in my home 
State, had an ATP program. But they also have venture capital funding 
that would have funded that research anyway.

  Many of the program's most vocal supporters believe without Federal 
funding provided by ATP, countless research projects would receive no 
money at all, and that ATP exists to remedy the failure of the market 
to fund research and development. There is no evidence, however, that 
would support those claims.
  Time after time, ATP has been shown to fund initiatives that have 
already been undertaken by the private sector. Year after year, 
multibillion-dollar corporations, as noted here, receive millions of 
dollars from ATP.
  Regarding the claim that ATP primarily funds research that does not 
already exist in the private sector, the U.S. Government Accountability 
Office found in a 2000 report ATP-funded research on handwriting 
recognition that began in the private sector in 1950. GAO found that 
inherent factors within ATP made it unlikely that ATP--and this is a 
quote--``can avoid funding research already being pursued by the 
private sector in the same time period.''
  A 2002 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found that ATP 
launched major efforts to fund Internet tools companies during periods 
when venture funding was markedly increasing its flow to these sectors. 
Furthermore, according to a program assessment and rating tool used by 
the Office of Management and Budget, ATP does not address a specific 
need and is not designed to make a unique contribution.
  The Byrne Justice Assistance Grants, through the Edward Byrne 
Memorial Justice Assistance Grants, the Bureau of Justice Assistance 
provides leadership and guidance on crime control and violence 
prevention and works in partnership with State and local governments to 
make communities safe and improve the criminal justice system. The JAG 
Program was created in 2004 through the merger of two Federal grant 
programs, the Edward Byrne Memorial Drug Control and System Improvement 
Grant Program and the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Program. The 
JAG Program allows States and local governments to support a broad 
range of activities to prevent and control crime and to improve the 
criminal justice system.
  The program focuses specifically on six separate purpose areas: law 
enforcement programs; prosecution and court programs; prevention and 
educational programs; correction and community correction programs; 
drug treatment programs; planning, evaluation, and technology 
improvement.
  I want to tell you, as a physician, incarceration does not solve drug 
addiction. It makes it worse. Drug treatment programs solve drug 
addictions. If we are going to cut the money going to drug treatment 
programs, we are making a vital mistake, a mistake we will pay 
additional dollars for in the years to come.

[[Page S9904]]

  The procedure for allocating JAG funds is a formula based on 
population and crime statistics in combination with the minimum 
allocation to ensure that each State and territory receives an 
appropriate share.
  Traditionally, under the Byrne formula and LLEBG Program, funds were 
distributed 60-40 between State and local recipients. This distribution 
continues under the JAG Program.
  The community-oriented policing services' Methamphetamine Hot Spots 
Program address a broad array of law enforcement initiatives pertaining 
to the investigation of methamphetamine trafficking in heavily affected 
areas of the country. This is the largest growing area of drug abuse in 
our country. It has a tremendous impact not only on the drug user but 
on their families because of the danger associated with it. We have 
seen a marked increase of infants who are delivered whose mothers are 
addicted to methamphetamine with tremendous negative consequences.
  Earlier this year, 53 State attorneys general, including American 
Samoa and North Mariana Islands and District of Columbia, signed a 
letter to congressional leadership asking us not to reduce the funding 
for the Byrne Jag and COPS Program. The letter asked Congress to 
restore the reductions in these law enforcement programs to a level 
that allows the States to build on the results of the past, law 
enforcement partnerships represented by the Byrne JAG and COPS 
Programs. I will not go into the National Weather Service.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
a fact sheet on Ohio, an article by the Cleveland Plain Dealer on the 
meth epidemic striking Ohio, a fact sheet on Virginia, and a fact sheet 
on Minnesota.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

          Ohio Fact Sheet--Coburn Amendment #1648 to H.R. 2862

       This amendment eliminates funding for the Advanced 
     Technology Program (ATP) and shifts the funding to three 
     separate programs: Byrne Justice Assistance Grants (JAG), 
     Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), and the National 
     Weather Service (NWS).
       Specifically, funding for ATP is reduced by $140 million, 
     funding for JAG is increased by $48 million, funding for 
     COPS/Methamphetamine Hot Spots is increased by $72 million, 
     and funding for NWS is increased by $4.9 million.
       Since 1990, ATP has funneled more than $700 million to 
     Fortune 500 companies that do not require government 
     assistance. For example, GE (revenues of $152 billion in 
     2004) has received $91 million from ATP, IBM (revenues of $96 
     billion in 2004) has received $126 million from ATP, and 
     Motorola (revenues of $31 billion in 2004) has received $44 
     million from ATP since 1990.
       Since 1990, Ohio has received an average of $6.1 million 
     from ATP each year. In fiscal year 2005, Ohio received $15.5 
     million from Byrne JAG funding alone.
       Even though ATP was created to fund research that cannot 
     attract private financing, a Government Accountability Office 
     study found that 63 percent of ATP grant recipients never 
     even sought private financing. Quite simply, ATP funnels 
     taxpayer money to billion dollar corporations that do not 
     need government subsidies for research and development.
       The National Association of Attorneys General, National 
     District Attorneys Association, National Narcotics Officers 
     Association Coalition, and National Sheriffs Association have 
     all expressed support for the Coburn amendment.
       Earlier this year, Jim Pero, the Attorney General of Ohio, 
     co-signed a letter to Congressional leadership stating that 
     funding cuts for law enforcement grants ``will devastate 
     state law enforcement efforts--especially drug enforcement--
     if they are not restored.'' In the absence of this amendment, 
     Byrne JAG funding will be cut by $6.5 million relative to 
     2005 levels.
       An August 2005 news article in The Plain Dealer, a 
     newspaper in Cleveland, states, ``A scourge on the West Coast 
     for nearly two decades, methamphetamine has established a 
     destructive toehold in Ohio, infecting rural outposts, big 
     cities and middle-class suburbs and consuming thousands of 
     lives.''
       A July 2005 survey of law enforcement agencies conducted by 
     the National Association of Counties found that ``Meth is the 
     leading drug-related local law enforcement problem in the 
     country.''
       According to the same survey, 70 percent of responding 
     officials stated that other crimes, including robberies and 
     burglaries, had increased because of methamphetamine use.
       The Methamphetamine Hot Spots program, part of COPS, 
     addresses a broad array of law enforcement initiatives 
     pertaining to the investigation of methamphetamine use and 
     trafficking, trains law enforcement officials, collects 
     intelligence, and works to discover, interdict, and dismantle 
     clandestine drug laboratories. This amendment would ensure 
     that this program receives the funding it needs to tackle the 
     serious problems associated with methamphetamine use and 
     distribution.
       This amendment also increases funding for the National 
     Weather Service, and directs the additional funding towards 
     the Inland and Coastal Hurricane Monitoring and Prediction 
     program and the Hurricane and Tornado Broadcast Campaign.
                                  ____


                 [From the Plain Dealer, Aug. 7, 2005.]

                       Meth Epidemic Strikes Ohio

                          (By Mark Gillispie)

       A scourge on the West Coast for nearly two decades, 
     methamphetamine has established a destructive toehold in 
     Ohio, infecting rural outposts, big cities and middle-class 
     suburbs and consuming thousands of lives.
       Like moonshine, but far more addictive, methamphetamine is 
     a home-cooked concoction that can be brewed in kitchens, 
     hotel rooms, back yards and trunks of cars.
       And its destructive surge eastward--reinvigorated by 
     Mexican drug cartels--has been driven largely by waves of 
     hometown cooks, who pass the finished drug and their favorite 
     recipes to family, friends and customers. In Summit County, a 
     now-entrenched culture of meth-cooking has been traced to one 
     woman--Debra Oviatt--who has spent the last eight years in 
     prison but is still known today as Akron's ``Mother of 
     Meth.''
       ``There's no doubt in my mind that Debbie got the whole 
     thing started,'' said Larry Limbert, a retired narcotics 
     detective with the Summit County Sheriff's Office.
       Summit County has since become Ohio's meth capital. 
     Narcotics officers dismantled 104 labs there last year--far 
     more than in any other county--and are on pace to exceed that 
     total this year. Common wisdom in law enforcement holds that 
     for every one lab busted, 10 remain undiscovered.
       Nationally, the number of labs and other meth sites found 
     last year topped 17,000, according to federal statistics, up 
     from just 327 a decade ago.
       As authorities in dozens of states try to shut down local 
     cooks, evidence is mounting that ``ice,'' a more potent form 
     of meth, is being shipped in from Mexico and California to 
     fill entrenched demand. In Summit County, meanwhile, 
     officials say the Department of Children Services has removed 
     dozens of children from homes where parents cooked and used 
     meth in recent years. One-third of juveniles enrolled in a 
     Summit County drug-court program reported having tried the 
     drug, also commonly known as ``crank,'' ``crystal,'' 
     ``speed'' and ``tweek.''
       The number of methamphetamine users who sought help at 
     Oriana House, a drug-treatment organization in Summit County, 
     jumped from 30 in 2001 to 386 last year.
       ``There's definitely something going on out there,'' said 
     Oriana executive vice president Bernie Rochford.
       Police and narcotics agents in Lake County have found 15 
     labs since September but only a handful before then. Portage 
     County has dismantled at least five labs since April.
       Police in Ashtabula County have been finding nearly one lab 
     a week. The Children's Services agency there has had to close 
     an adolescent group home and shift resources to pay for the 
     care of children removed from parents who cook and abuse 
     meth.
       Methamphetamine use also is rising in Cleveland and its 
     suburbs, where the drug had been confined mostly to gay bars, 
     bath houses and strip clubs, says Lt. Michael Jackson of the 
     Cuyahoga County Sheriffs Office. Experts predict the problem 
     will get worse before it gets better.
       ``You've heard about crack, you've heard about heroin,'' 
     said Akron police Lt. Mike Caprez. ``I've seen all those 
     things take their course, and this has them both beat.'' Like 
     crack in some ways, meth is more dangerous.
       Like crack in some ways, meth is more dangerous.
       Comparing meth to crack cocaine is apt on a number of 
     levels.
       Both are stimulants. Both are highly addictive.
       While methamphetamine can be snorted, injected or eaten, 
     more than half of those who sought treatment for meth 
     addiction in 2003 said they smoked the drug--which is how 
     crack is ingested.
       Smoking meth produces the same strong, instantaneous 
     ``rush'' that crack smokers achieve.
       Methamphetamine floods the pleasure centers of the brain 
     with large amounts of the neurotransmitter dopamine. It also 
     affects other body chemicals that govern sleep, thirst, 
     hunger and sex drive, making a person feel energetic, wakeful 
     and hypersexual.
       But meth remains in the body 10 times longer than crack, 
     which can make meth cheaper to use. And while crack is 
     obviously dangerous, methamphetamine causes even more 
     physical harm.
       A strong neurotoxin, methamphetamine damages the brain and 
     other vital organs in a way that crack does not. And 
     recovery, while possible, can be more difficult and take 
     longer.
       It can take several years of abstinence before meth 
     addicts' body chemistry straightens out and they can feel 
     ``normal'' again. Early studies show some of the brain damage 
     is reversible.
       The drug also rots teeth, a condition known as ``meth 
     mouth.'' Users develop ugly sores caused by incessant picking 
     and scratching at phantom ``crank bugs'' they feel under 
     their skin.

[[Page S9905]]

       And when the dopamine ``buzz'' wears off, meth users are 
     left wide awake for hours on end feeling angry and depressed.
       The quick fix is more meth, which can trigger a vicious 
     cycle of addiction. Hard-core meth users, known as 
     ``tweekers,'' sometimes go days, even weeks, without sleep.
       That's when they become especially dangerous to themselves 
     and others. Meth-driven psychosis--chiefly paranoia and 
     hallucinations--combined with severe sleep deprivation can 
     result in bizarre and violent behavior. James Trimble's 
     attorney has claimed in court filings that his client was in 
     the throes of methinduced psychosis when he killed three 
     people in Portage County's Brimfield Township in January.
       Because it is cheaper to use than crack, and because some 
     start using it for reasons other than getting high, meth has 
     also had a broader appeal among potential abusers.
       Women, who abuse meth at about the same rate as men, often 
     report that they began using the drug to lose weight.
       Blue-collar and construction workers use methamphetamine 
     for an energy boost to get them through long days of hard 
     labor.
       An epidemiologist recently reported that in North Carolina, 
     hunters and fishermen are using meth to stay awake.
       Gay men everywhere use meth for its ability to enhance sex. 
     Stepped-up meth use is being blamed for dramatic recent 
     increases in infection rates for HIV and other sexually 
     transmitted diseases.
       ``There isn't a specific demographic that I associate with 
     meth,'' said Dr. Alex Stalcup, a drug treatment specialist in 
     San Francisco. ``It's essentially a universal drug.'' Three 
     abusers: three different stories.
       Three abusers: Three different stories.
       Margaret, 27, of Summit County, felt self-conscious about 
     her weight after giving birth to her second child. Her 
     boyfriend coaxed her into trying meth two years ago as she 
     did the laundry at their apartment in Mogadore.
       ``I remember I felt like my eyeballs were going to come out 
     of my head, it burned so bad,'' Margaret said. ``But then, I 
     had all of this energy. So much energy I didn't know what to 
     do.''
       She said she stayed up for five days straight, calling off 
     work, scouring and scrubbing virtually every inch of her 
     apartment.
       ``I loved to clean when I was on it,'' she said.
       She did indeed lose weight. But then she lost her job, and, 
     because of bad luck, a vengeful boyfriend and the bag of meth 
     police found in her purse, she lost custody of her two 
     children, too.
       Margaret is now in a community-based corrections facility 
     in Akron working to put her life back together.
       ``I can't believe I let this happen to me,'' she said.
       Chad, a 20-year-old recovering addict, said he became 
     instantly addicted to meth after someone gave him a few lines 
     to snort at the Streetsboro manufacturing plant where he 
     worked. He said many of his coworkers used meth to endure the 
     grind of 12-hour days on the factory floor.
       ``That was my excuse, to get through the shift,'' Chad 
     said.
       Max, 34, of Cleveland, said he and numerous gay men he had 
     sex with in West Side bath houses would use meth. Most 
     preferred not to use condoms, he said, and few asked him 
     about his HIV status. He is positive.
       Max said he has been drug-free since April, when he and 
     other members of a group calling itself the ``Gay Mafia'' 
     were arrested in a sweeping methamphetamine bust. Federal 
     authorities say the group sold meth brought here from 
     Phoenix.
       ``Had I not gotten busted, I would still be doing it,'' Max 
     acknowledged. ``I don't think there's anything wrong with 
     it.''
       While crack use increased rapidly, peaked in the late 1980s 
     and then fell off as people became wary of its effects, meth 
     use has been rising steadily.
       From 1993 to 2003, the number of people seeking treatment 
     for meth addiction jumped five-fold.
       Also in 2003, 14 states reported that more people entered 
     treatment for methamphetamine than for cocaine and heroin 
     combined. A survey that year estimated that more than 600,000 
     people recently used meth, about the same number as used 
     crack. But experts now believe that meth use has exceeded 
     crack.
       Unlike crack, methamphetamine--often referred to as ``poor 
     man's cocaine''--has swept through rural communities across 
     the country, including in southern Ohio.
       But it has long been popular in big cities as well, 
     especially out west, where places like San Diego, Phoenix and 
     Portland, Ore., report high rates of meth addiction.
       Police in Los Angeles say meth has become that city's No. 1 
     drug.
       And police in other western states say methamphetamine is 
     not only their top drug concern, it's their top crime problem 
     as well.
       Walt Myers, the recently retired police chief in Salem, 
     Ore., said meth use drives at least 85 percent of the crime 
     in that city. Police in Tucson, Ariz., attribute dramatic 
     recent jumps in thefts and burglaries to a worsening 
     methamphetamine problem.
       And identity theft is emerging in many communities as a 
     crime of choice among meth addicts.
       Bob Brown of the Colorado Bureau of Criminal Investigation 
     said his agency has investigated numerous rings of meth users 
     producing high-quality counterfeit checks and identification 
     cards.
       ``They don't sleep and they're high,'' Brown said of the 
     meth-driven counterfeiters. ``They're staying up late at 
     night when the rest of us are sleeping, and they're cranking 
     this stuff out.''
       Nearly 60 percent of county sheriffs said in a recent 
     national survey that the meth epidemic is their worst drug 
     problem--three times the number mentioning cocaine.
       ``It's not like the crack epidemic,'' said Richard Rawson, 
     a drug treatment expert at UCLA. ``It's not a flare-up and 
     flame-out. It's a gradual infestation and it stays there. 
     That's not a very positive perspective on the future.''
       The making of Summit's Mother of Meth'.
       The infestation in Akron can be traced to when Debra Oviatt 
     returned to Ohio a second time from California, bringing 
     along her favorite recipe for home-cooked meth.
       Oviatt, 52, grew up in Wadsworth but moved as a young adult 
     to California, where she was arrested numerous times for auto 
     theft and was sentenced twice to prison.
       She returned to Ohio after being paroled in 1986 and 
     apparently brought a meth habit with her.
       Postal inspectors arrested her in 1991 after a package 
     containing methamphetamine was mailed from California to her 
     brother-in-law's home in Richfield. Oviatt received six 
     months in state prison.
       She fled to California three years later when one of her 
     customers was arrested after a 3-ounce package of meth was 
     sent to his home.
       When she came back to the Akron area in 1996, Oviatt 
     brought with her a deadly legacy: the ability to make her own 
     meth and a willingness to pass on the recipe.
       Methamphetamine is manufactured using a witch's brew of 
     solvents and chemicals to change the molecular structure of 
     pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in popular over-the-
     counter cold remedies such as Sudafed and Actifed.
       Meth labs are typically lowtech affairs. The tools of the 
     trade--glass jars, plastic soda bottles, coffee filters and 
     aquarium hoses--can fit inside a typical suitcase. The 
     flammable and combustible nature of the ingredients makes the 
     process potentially dangerous, but not difficult to learn.
       ``There's definitely a science in making it, but it's not 
     rocket science,'' said Michael Fox, a drug counselor with the 
     Community Health Center of Akron. ``With a little bit of 
     training, anybody can make it.''
       Meth cooks typically attract a small coterie of friends and 
     addicts who gather ingredients, such as cold pills, in 
     exchange for a share of the finished product.
       When those friends and addicts learn the recipe themselves, 
     they often form their own co-operatives, which leads to more 
     cooking, more drugs and more addiction.
       That's essentially what happened with Oviatt, authorities 
     say. And the result was a dramatic increase in meth abuse in 
     southern Summit County.
       How many people she eventually taught to make the drug is 
     in dispute.
       Although she declined twice to be interviewed, Oviatt 
     claimed in a letter to have taught only two. Police think 
     it's many more.
       Among her students, they say, was Oviatt's son, Christopher 
     Shrake, who is serving a second prison sentence for meth 
     manufacturing.
       Legendary cook undaunted by charges.
       It was Shrake's carelessness that led to the discovery of 
     Summit County's first known methamphetamine lab nearly 10 
     years ago.
       About 7:30 a.m. on May 5, 1996, the Green Fire Department 
     got a call about a fire at a home on East Turkeyfoot Road. 
     Shrake apparently started the fire while mishandling some of 
     the ingredients.
       The home sustained extensive damage. Firefighters' initial 
     suspicions were confirmed when members of a Summit County 
     drug unit arrived and revealed that they had been 
     investigating reports of a meth lab in the home.
       A Summit County grand jury indicted Oviatt and Shrake. But 
     that didn't slow Oviatt down.
       Police say that after a friend made and sold enough meth to 
     post her bail, Oviatt set up a shifting string of labs in 
     people's homes and in hotels along Interstate 77.
       Detectives said Oviatt sometimes enlisted the help of her 
     6-year-old daughter to scrape methamphetamine residue from 
     filters, telling her it was bird seed.
       Oviatt initially was selective about whom she taught, 
     sometimes sharing only a portion of the recipe in exchange 
     for cash or meth-making ingredients, a former student said. 
     That changed when it was clear she was headed to prison.
       ``Debbie wanted to teach anybody and everybody so this town 
     would be flooded and nobody would make any money,'' the 
     student said.
       Before she could settle the charges from the Green 
     incident, Oviatt was arrested in August 1996 at a hotel in 
     Wadsworth.
       Police, who had been called because of a fight between 
     Shrake and his girlfriend, found methlab components in 
     Oviatt's room.
       Oviatt agreed to a plea deal on charges from both arrests. 
     But before sentencing, she fled in February 1997 with the 6-
     year-old and a pregnant 16-year-old daughter.
       Detectives spent five months chasing her around Ohio, West 
     Virginia and Pennsylvania.
       ``She bounced from apartment house to apartment house, 
     hotel to hotel,'' said Limbert, the retired detective. ``They 
     would

[[Page S9906]]

     make enough dope in those places that they would be OK.''
       Oviatt's meth-cooking career ended on June 22, 1997. That's 
     when her younger daughter called 9-1-1 from a hotel in 
     Springfield Township and asked to speak with Limbert and 
     Detective Bruce Berlin. Oviatt, who had left the hotel, was 
     arrested later that evening.
       She pleaded guilty to various charges, including 
     racketeering and kidnapping, and received a 2-year sentence.
       Police believe that by the time she went to prison, dozens 
     of others had learned how to make methamphetamine, either 
     directly from Oviatt or from one of her students.
       South Akron is hotbed for meth
       Oviatt and her proteges helped make mostly white, blue-
     collar Akron neighborhoods like Kenmore and Firestone Park--
     along with nearby Barberton and Springfield Township--the 
     epicenter of meth making in Summit County.
       It's in that general area that most of Summit County's meth 
     labs have been found, including a would-be meth school 
     operated by Brian Matheny, who police believe learned and 
     improved on Oviatt's recipe.
       A nurse by training, Matheny set up a lab in the basement 
     of his Kenmore home, selling meth to support a substantial 
     heroin habit.
       Using a camera he had received for Christmas, he made an 
     instructional video on meth manufacturing.
       Police found the tape during a search of the basement in 
     September 1997.
       It shows Matheny coughing and exhaling hydrochloric gas, 
     which is used in one step of the cooking process.
       Penny Bishop, 43, got hooked on meth about the same time, 
     and in the same general neighborhood, and eventually learned 
     to cook as well--out of economic necessity.
       Bishop says a friend introduced her to the drug in 1997, 
     and she liked it immediately. In about two months, her habit 
     grew from $100 a week to $400 as she switched from eating 
     meth to smoking it.
       ``I had to have it just to get out of bed,'' Bishop said. 
     ``If I didn't have it, I wasn't moving.''
       Bishop depended on the drug to allow her to work long hours 
     managing a gasoline station. But when her habit quickly 
     exceeded her salary, the friend who first sold her meth began 
     giving her money to buy cold pills.
       She started shoplifting the pills so she could keep the 
     cash and, as many meth addicts do, learned to make the drug 
     herself.
       Bishop, a high school dropout, said she caught on quickly.
       ``It was amazing I could take all these chemicals and make 
     a drug, but I can't grasp simple things to get my GED,'' 
     Bishop said.
       By the late 1990s, many stores had begun limiting how many 
     boxes of cold pills a person could buy at one time. (It takes 
     about 1,100 standard-strength pills to make a 1-ounce batch 
     of meth, roughly 280 doses.)
       Meth cooks have generally sidestepped such measures by 
     sending out groups of people to buy cold pills from as many 
     stores as necessary to acquire the amount needed for the next 
     batch.
       Laws cripple cooks, but meth keeps coming. But in the last 
     two years, authorities have gotten more aggressive in trying 
     to squeeze the cooks.
       About 40 states have passed laws to restrict the sale of 
     pseudoephedrine products or are considering them.
       In Ohio, legislators are considering a bill that would 
     restrict sales of pseudoephedrine products.
       The Oregon legislature agreed last month to make it a 
     prescription drug. And Congress is considering a bill that 
     would follow Oklahoma's lead by requiring buyers of the pills 
     to show identification and sign a log book.
       A number of national retailers have voluntarily moved cold 
     tablets to more-secure areas of their stores. And drug 
     manufacturers are gearing up production of cold pills that 
     contain phenylephrine--which cannot easily be converted into 
     meth--instead of pseudoephedrine.
       Since Oklahoma's pioneering law took effect last year, 
     methlab seizures there have plummeted.
       But not all the news is good. Narcotics detectives say 
     there is more meth than ever in Oklahoma. And the quality is 
     better.
       With local cooks being shut down, the state's entrenched 
     meth demand is now being met by Mexican narcotraficantes who 
     have stepped up production, mostly south of the border, to 
     supply a growing U.S. market.
       Seizures of ``ice''--the nearly pure form of meth churned 
     out in Mexican super labs--have jumped nearly five fold in 
     Oklahoma since its pseudoephedrine law took effect in April 
     2004.
       Ice, which resembles shards of glass, ``is like meth on 
     rocket fuel,'' said Mark Woodward, a spokesman for the 
     Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
       Because of its purity and strength, he said, it's more 
     addictive and more dangerous than the home-cooked meth it's 
     replacing.
       As long as the demand for meth highs persists, the future 
     does not look bright. There are no signs that meth use is 
     dropping in the West, Midwest or Southeast--areas of the 
     country where meth use has become entrenched.
       More Californians were treated for methamphetamine 
     addiction than alcoholism in 2003. And meth has started to 
     make inroads into Pennsylvania, Maryland and rural 
     communities of New York--the outskirts of the Northeast 
     Corridor, which is home to 60 million people, one-fifth of 
     the U.S. population.
       Vermont and Maine have been bracing for an upswing in meth 
     use and manufacturing. Two labs were recently found in 
     Connecticut.
       ``Their numbers [of meth users] are going to go up,'' said 
     Special Agent Michael Heald, a methamphetamine expert with 
     the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
       Heald acknowledged that law enforcement's ability to stop 
     the eastward surge of meth is limited. Prevention and 
     treatment, he said, are the best weapons in this particular 
     battle in the war on drugs.
       ``Until we teach people that drugs are absolutely 
     destructive to ourselves and society, we can arrest all the 
     people we can'' and still not win, Heald said.
       ``We can't do this alone.''
                                  ____


        Virginia Fact Sheet--Coburn Amendment #1648 to H.R. 2862

       This amendment eliminates funding for the Advanced 
     Technology Program (ATP) and shifts the funding to three 
     separate programs: Byrne Justice Assistance Grants (JAG), 
     Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), and the National 
     Weather Service (NWS).
       Specifically, funding for ATP is reduced by $140 million, 
     funding for JAG is increased by $48 million, funding for 
     COPS/Methamphetamine Hot Spots is increased by $72 million, 
     and funding for NWS is increased by $4.9 million.
       Since 1990, ATP has funneled more than $700 million to 
     Fortune 500 companies that do not require government 
     assistance. For example, GE (revenues of $152 billion in 
     2004) has received $91 million from ATP, IBM (revenues of $96 
     billion in 2004) has received $126 million from ATP, and 
     Motorola (revenues of $31 billion in 2004) has received $44 
     million from ATP since 1990.
       Since 1990, Virginia has received an average of $3.4 
     million from ATP each year. In fiscal year 2005, Virginia 
     received $9.7 million from Byrne JAG funding alone.
       Even though ATP was created to fund research that cannot 
     attract private financing, a Government Accountability Office 
     study found that 63 percent of ATP grant recipients never 
     even sought private financing. Quite simply, ATP funnels 
     taxpayer money to billion dollar corporations that do not 
     need government subsidies for research and development.
       The National Association of Attorneys General, National 
     District Attorneys Association, National Narcotics Officers 
     Association Coalition, and National Sheriffs Association have 
     all expressed support for the Coburn amendment.
       Earlier this year, Judith Williams Jagdmann, the Attorney 
     General of Virginia, co-signed a letter to Congressional 
     leadership. The letter stated that funding cuts for law 
     enforcement grants ``will devastate state law enforcement 
     efforts--especially drug enforcement--if they are not 
     restored.'' In the absence of this amendment, Byrne JAG 
     funding will be cut by $6.5 million relative to 2005 levels.
       In Virginia, at least 7 percent of high school students 
     have admitted to using methamphetamines at least once. A July 
     2005 survey of law enforcement agencies conducted by the 
     National Association of Counties found that ``Meth is the 
     leading drug-related local law enforcement problem in the 
     country.''
       According to the same survey, 70 percent of responding 
     officials stated that other crimes, including robberies and 
     burglaries, had increased because of methamphetamine use.
       The Methamphetamine Hot Spots program, part of COPS, 
     addresses a broad array of law enforcement initiatives 
     pertaining to the investigation of methamphetamine use and 
     trafficking, trains law enforcement officials, collects 
     intelligence, and works to discover, interdict, and dismantle 
     clandestine drug laboratories. This amendment would ensure 
     that this program receives the funding it needs to tackle the 
     serious problems associated with methamphetamine use and 
     distribution.
       This amendment also increases funding for the National 
     Weather Service, and directs the additional funding towards 
     the Inland and Coastal Hurricane Monitoring and Prediction 
     program and the Hurricane and Tornado Broadcast Campaign.
                                  ____


       Minnesota Fact Sheet--Coburn Amendment #1648 to H.R. 2862

       This amendment eliminates funding for the Advanced 
     Technology Program (ATP) and shifts the I funding to three 
     separate programs: Byrne Justice Assistance Grants (JAG), 
     Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), and the National 
     Weather Service (NWS).
       Specifically, funding for ATP is reduced by $140 million, 
     funding for JAG is increased by $48 million, funding for 
     COPS/Methamphetamine Hot Spots is increased by $72 million, 
     and funding for NWS is increased by $4.9 million.
       Since 1990, ATP has funneled more than $700 million to 
     Fortune 500 companies that do not require government 
     assistance. For example, GE (revenues of $152 billion in 
     2004) has received $91 million from ATP, IBM (revenues of $96 
     billion in 2004) has received $126 million from ATP, and 
     Motorola (revenues of $31 billion in 2004) has received $44 
     million from ATP since 1990.
       Since 1990, Minnesota has received an average of $4.6 
     million from ATP each year. In

[[Page S9907]]

     fiscal year 2005, Minnesota received $6.9 million from Byrne 
     JAG funding alone.
       Even though ATP was created to fund research that cannot 
     attract private financing, a Government Accountability Office 
     study found that 63 percent of ATP grant recipients never 
     even sought private financing. Quite simply, ATP funnels 
     taxpayer money to billion dollar corporations that do not 
     need government subsidies for research and development.
       The National Association of Attorneys General, National 
     District Attorneys Association, National Narcotics Officers 
     Association Coalition, and National Sheriffs Association have 
     all expressed support for the Coburn amendment.
       Earlier this year, Mike Hatch, the Attorney General of 
     Minnesota, co-signed a letter to Congressional leadership. 
     The letter stated that funding cuts for law enforcement 
     grants ``will devastate state law enforcement efforts--
     especially drug enforcement--if they are not restored.'' In 
     the absence of this amendment, Byrne JAG funding will be cut 
     by $6.5 million relative to 2005 levels.
       In Minnesota, at least 5 percent of high school students 
     have admitted to using methamphetamines at least once. A July 
     2005 survey of law enforcement agencies conducted by the 
     National Association of Counties found that ``Meth is the 
     leading drug-related local law enforcement problem in the 
     country.''
       According to the same survey, 70 percent of responding 
     officials stated that other crimes, including robberies and 
     burglaries, had increased because of methamphetamine use.
       The Methamphetamine Hot Spots program, part of COPS, 
     addresses a broad array of law enforcement initiatives 
     pertaining to the investigation of methamphetamine use and 
     trafficking, trains law enforcement officials, collects 
     intelligence, and works to discover, interdict, and dismantle 
     clandestine drug laboratories. This amendment would ensure 
     that this program receives the funding it needs to tackle the 
     serious problems associated with methamphetamine use and 
     distribution.
       This amendment also increases funding for the National 
     Weather Service, and directs the additional funding towards 
     the Inland and Coastal Hurricane Monitoring and Prediction 
     program and the Hurricane and Tornado Broadcast Campaign.
       Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota is a co-sponsor of this 
     amendment.

  Mr. COBURN. This is an area where there will be some controversy. I 
don't know if we will win the vote on this amendment. If we start 
looking at the human faces of what we, as Government, can do versus 
what business on its own can do and venture capital on its own can do, 
what we will see is that our parochialism needs to stop in terms of 
benefits to limited numbers, and we need to increase benefits to the 
masses. What I am asking by this grant is to eliminate a program that 
is marginal at best and put the money where it is going to make a 
tremendous difference in people's lives, born and unborn. It is my hope 
the Senate will concur with the amendment and that we can have a 
bipartisan vote to do it. It is also my hope that this is the first of 
many amendments, as we continue the appropriations process, where we 
will start making the hard choices--not easy, not black and white, but 
gray--that are necessary for us to meet the growing needs of the 
Federal Government in this time of tremendous tragedy along our gulf 
coast and in a time of tragedy for our budget.
  It is my hope we won't vote this based on what we feel our own State 
gets but what is best for the country and how we move forward.
  I yield the floor.


                           amendment no. 1668

  Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak on behalf of my 
amendment that would allocate $2 million for methamphetamine education 
programs in our Nation's schools. I am very pleased that this measure 
has been included in the underlying bill, and I would like to take a 
moment to explain why this amendment is so important.
  Over the August recess I traveled throughout New Mexico to discuss 
the challenges local communities are facing in confronting problems 
associated with meth. I met with law enforcement, health officials, 
prosecutors, citizens, and State and local representatives. At each 
place I visited--Moriarty, Roswell, Farmington, Belen, Santa Fe, Taos, 
and Albuquerque--the message was clear: methamphetamine is the most 
serious drug threat that we are facing and we must do more to fight the 
spread of this epidemic.
  Indeed, the National Association of Counties recently released a 
report that found that 58 percent of counties surveyed viewed meth as 
their largest drug problem, and 70 percent of law enforcement reported 
that robberies and burglaries have substantially increased due to meth 
use in their communities. And according to the DEA, there were some 
16,000 meth lab seizures last year, up from 912 in 1995. In New Mexico, 
the number of labs seized increased fivefold from 1998 to 2003. The 
drug is particularly harmful because of its impact on the user, the 
likelihood of exposure to chemicals during the drug production process, 
and the high cleanup costs associated with dismantling labs.
  We must address this issue in a comprehensive manner by reducing 
domestic production, providing law enforcement with the tools they need 
to fight the meth epidemic, disrupting the importation of meth or its 
precursor chemicals into the United States, and by developing effective 
education and treatment programs.
  With regard to limiting domestic production, I am proud to be a 
cosponsor of the Combat Meth Act, which was introduced by Senators 
Talent and Feinstein, and included in the CJS appropriations bill. The 
bill would curb production by moving pseudoephedrine, the primary 
ingredient in meth and a common ingredient in cold medicines, behind 
the pharmacy counter. After Oklahoma enacted a similar law meth 
production dropped by over 80 percent in 1 year. The bill also provides 
additional funding for law enforcement and creates a research and 
training center aimed at developing effective treatments for meth 
users.
  I am also pleased that the CJS appropriations bill provides funding 
for the COPS meth program to assist local law enforcement obtain the 
equipment they need to safely and effectively clean up meth labs. I was 
very disappointed that the President proposed cutting the total COPS 
program by 96 percent and the meth portion of the program by 62 
percent. Fortunately, the Appropriations Committee rejected the 
administration's proposal and included over $60 million for the COPS 
meth program, which is about $5 million more than last year. Since 
1994, New Mexico has received over $68 million in COPS grants and more 
than $860,000 specifically under the COPS meth program. The 
administration also proposed cutting the HIDT A program by more than 50 
percent, from $226 million to $100 million. These cuts, if enacted, 
would have significantly impacted our ability to fight the importation 
of meth from countries such as Mexico. Thankfully the Senate rejected 
this proposal as well.

  However, I believe that we should also be focusing more on prevention 
by educating youth on the dangers of using meth. Along with enhanced 
law enforcement, prevention and education are key to combating meth. My 
amendment would provide funding for grants to law enforcement and 
health and school officials to carry out meth education prevention 
efforts in schools across the country. This funding could be used by 
local officials to tailor curriculum to the needs of their local 
comminutes and purchase the materials they need to educate youth on the 
dangers of meth.
  According to ONDCP, there is a 95-percent chance that a first-time 
meth user will become addicted. Once kids get addicted there aren't a 
lot of treatment options and they often face tough criminal sanctions 
for using the drug. We need to emphasize education prevention efforts 
so we can stop people from going down a hard-to-reverse path riddled 
with crime and devastating health effects.
  Because the consequences of meth use are so visibly evident, such as 
rotting teeth and open sores, students will likely be more receptive to 
such information than with other drugs, such as marijuana, that are 
normally the target of drug education prevention efforts in schools. 
The ingredients used in the production of meth, such as battery acid, 
antifreeze, kitty litter, lithium batteries, also create an opportunity 
to make children understand the dangerous nature of this drug.
  According to a report issued this month by the Substance Abuse and 
Metal Health Services Administratior, SAMHSA, there were 583,000 
current users of meth in 2004 aud 1.4 million persons ages 12 and older 
have used meth in the past year. By providing additional resources for 
prevention and education, I believe that we can make considerable 
headway in fighting this terrible epidemic, and I am glad that the 
Senate has acted on this important measure.

[[Page S9908]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.

                          ____________________