[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 23]
[House]
[Page 32140]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          THE EUROPEAN UNION'S UNITED STAND AGAINST DRUG ABUSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Renzi). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) is recognized for 5 
minutes.


          An Unprecedented Year of Accomplishment by Congress

  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, first before I make the basic remarks I came 
down to the floor to make, I think it is important to make a couple of 
comments on the appropriations process that has been, I believe, 
somewhat misrepresented in some of the comments we have heard today.
  I want to thank the gentleman from California (Chairman Lewis) and 
his subcommittee, the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young) of the 
full committee, our esteemed late colleague Mr. Skeen, who all 
understood that the appropriations process is extremely difficult. We 
all come in with all these requests. We believe that everybody else's 
requests are pork except for ours. We try to have a budget resolution 
that we try to hold everybody in. This year we were fairly successful, 
but when we have the war in Iraq and other pressures, we inevitably go 
over. I had been a staffer for many years and then a Member of 
Congress. I do not know when we have ever been within the budget 
guidelines, and we have done better than normal.
  But the impression has been given that somehow this was an 
unprecedented, terrible thing and it was just Republicans and we jammed 
it. The unfortunate sad truth is if it was just Republicans, this bill 
would have failed today because we had a bunch of Republicans who did 
not back the Republican conference report. What we had were 58 
Democrats who voted for this bill. Nearly one-third of the Democratic 
Party backed a bill that was just described as an awful, bipartisan, 
unprecedented effort, backed, by the way, by one-third of the 
Democrats. So I think it is really important to make sure in the Record 
that the things that the gentleman from Illinois (Speaker Hastert) 
talked about today were, yes, very tough votes in many cases, took us a 
while to close the Medicare vote, but, in fact, it was an unprecedented 
year of accomplishment both in the Committee on Appropriations by the 
authorizers and in most cases, in almost every case, a bipartisan 
effort in spite of the fact that often the Democratic leadership 
pleaded with their Members not to make it bipartisan, but they saw the 
merits of the bill, and today 58 Democrats voted for this conference 
report.
  I have at times been a critic of some of the drug policies of Europe, 
and I wanted to rise today and recognize and applaud the European Union 
for agreeing to toughen antidrug laws and urging actions to end drug 
tourism on the continent.
  After more than 2 years of negotiations, EU ministers reached a 
landmark agreement on November 27 to toughen antidrug laws and to 
harmonize the continent's laws to make the bloc more efficient in the 
fight against illegal drugs. The laws cover all types of drug dealing, 
ranging from local networks to large-scale international operations.
  Under the agreed rules, offering, selling, or producing drugs would 
be sanctioned with maximum jail terms of at least 1 to 3 years. In 
cases involving large-scale international drug trafficking, sanctions 
should be at least 5 to 10 years. Member states also agreed on a 
declaration stressing the importance of fighting drug tourism.
  The EU's united stand against drug abuse strengthens global efforts 
to prevent drug abuse and to put away drug pushers and others including 
terrorists who financially benefit from destructive drug addiction. It 
is disappointing that the EU agreement will allow the so-called 
``coffee shops'' in the Netherlands where marijuana can be legally 
abused to remain open. I am, however, encouraged that the Netherlands 
is investigating possible approaches that would end U.S. drug tourism 
to Amsterdam.
  Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner has stated that the 
Netherlands Government is considering rules under which ``coffee 
shops'' would only be allowed to sell drugs to Dutch residents as part 
of its obligation to dissuade tourists from going to Amsterdam for 
drugs. Under his proposal, only Dutch residents with identity cards 
would be allowed to use the cannabis cafes. This move would protect 
Americans visiting Amsterdam from the dangers of engaging in drug 
abuse. Currently, foreign tourists, including Americans, make up about 
40 percent of ``coffee shop'' sales in Amsterdam, according to the 
London Times.
  I also hope that this agreement will further our international 
efforts to control the trafficking of ecstasy and other dangerous 
synthetic drugs. In recent years, traffickers have set up their illegal 
manufacturing operations in countries, predominantly the Netherlands, 
and also to some degree in Belgium, in the hopes of avoiding tough 
penalties if they are caught. This agreement should send a clear signal 
to the drug cartels that Europe and the U.S. will continue to work 
together to break up these international drug rings.
  Furthermore, I am encouraged that the Netherlands has also agreed to 
increase its sanctions for the possession of small quantities of 
marijuana to a year from 1 month. These are important steps in the 
Netherlands that I hope will eventually lead to stiffer penalties for 
all drug abuse.
  It is increasingly clear that every nation must play a role in 
educating the public as to why drug abuse is harmful and in preventing 
drug addiction. As long as one country tolerates the production, sale, 
or distribution of any illegal drugs, other nations, communities, and 
families are vulnerable to the threats caused by drug abuse that is 
easily transported across borders. The EU's commitment to not tolerate 
drug abuse and drug tourism protects not only the families and 
communities of Europe but also the families and communities here and 
elsewhere in the world.
  Again, I applaud this agreement and look forward to working with 
these and other countries to strengthen international drug laws and to 
protect children from the dangers of drug abuse and addiction.

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