IMPEACHMENT FIGURE IN LINE FOR DRUG ENFORCEMENT POST

WASHINGTON -- President Bush is expected to name Representative Asa
Hutchinson, an Arkansas Republican with a long interest in drug issues, as
the new head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, officials said.

Mr. Hutchinson, 50, who was one of the House managers in the impeachment
trial of President Bill Clinton, is a former United States attorney in
Arkansas who once prosecuted Mr. Clinton's brother, Roger, on drug charges.

Mr. Hutchinson's appointment has not been announced by the White House, but
officials said it was expected soon. If confirmed by the Senate, Mr.
Hutchinson would succeed the acting agency head, Donnie R. Marshall.

Mr. Hutchinson, who had been rumored to be in the running for other senior
positions in the Justice Department as well, would be leaving what appears
to be a relatively safe Republican Congressional seat for the new post.

The appointment of Mr. Hutchinson, whose brother, Tim, represents Arkansas
in the Senate, would create a vacancy in the House that would be filled by
special election. Republicans say they are not worried that the contest in
the state's Third Congressional District would shrink their five-seat
majority in the House.

"This is a district that Bill Clinton lost in Arkansas in '96, and Bush
carried it comfortably," said Representative Thomas M. Davis, the Virginia
Republican who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee. "This
is a pretty good mountain Republican seat. I think we are going to be fine.
It has been a Republican seat for 36 years without interruption."

Mr. Hutchinson would be joining the Drug Enforcement Administration in the
middle of a renewed national debate over the future of the nation's drug
policy and how best to balance efforts to block drug trafficking with
efforts to prevent drug use.

Critics argue that the United States has spent far too much on efforts to
block drugs in Latin America and on law enforcement efforts in this
country, while failing to provide sufficient money to help treat drug abusers.

The mistaken downing of a small plane carrying a missionary family in Peru
last month has intensified the debate over whether the United States has
over-emphasized interdiction and investigation rather than prevention. The
plane was shot down by a Peruvian fighter plane involved in an antidrug
program supported by the United States.

The expected appointment of Mr. Hutchinson follows President Bush's
decision to name John P. Walters, a conservative who was critical of the
Clinton administration's counternarcotics efforts, to be the nation's drug
czar.

Mr. Hutchinson declined to confirm today that he had been selected to run
the agency.

"There has been much speculation about my leaving Congress to accept a
position in the administration," Mr. Hutchinson said in a statement. "While
I have been in discussions with the White House about the position of
D.E.A. administrator, an announcement of the intent to nominate can be made
only by the president."

In Congress, Mr. Hutchinson, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, has
shown an interest in drug issues, an aide to Mr. Hutchinson said.

Last year, he sponsored legislation to provide federal money to help
reimburse local police forces for their efforts against methamphetamine
laboratories, the aide said.

Advocates of treating the narcotics problem as more of a public health
issue now see the new team that Mr. Bush is putting together as
representing a fairly traditional law- and-order perspective on the drug war.

"It generally looks like more of the same," said Kevin Zeese, president of
Common Sense for Drug Policy.