WHITE HOUSE CRITICIZES DRUG BILL

If the Clinton administration doesn't have the will to get tougher in the
fight against drugs, Congress will step in, House Speaker Newt Gingrich
says. He spoke shortly before the House voted 384 -39 on Wednesday to add
$2.6 billion over three years to the government's drug-interdiction efforts.
The Senate has not yet voted on the measure, and the White House's drug
policy coordinator has urged lawmakers to reject it. Retired Gen. Barry
McCaffrey said extra money is always welcome. But he criticized the bill as
an ill-conceived exercise in micromanagement possibly motivated by
election-year politics.

"This bill is not the answer," McCaffrey told reporters Wednesday after
speaking before a joint meeting of two Senate subcommittees. "I understand
that elections are coming, but they should not vote for this bill."
Republicans have long criticized the administration for what they believe is
a lax and failed drug policy that puts too much emphasis on education and
prevention and not enough on law enforcement and punishment.

They contend that until Clinton took office in 1992, close to 33 percent of
the government's drug-fighting budget was devoted to interdiction and
activities in countries where raw materials for illegal narcotics are grown.
Today, that percentage is about 13 percent.

Introduced in both the House and the Senate, the bill would authorize
spending $2.6 billion over three years for illegal drug-fighting efforts
involving interdiction, law enforcement and U.S. activities in countries
where illegal drugs are produced. The bill does not say where the money
would come from.

McCaffrey called the bill's goals unrealistic and said its provisions are
not tied to a coherent strategy or based on informed analysis of the drug
problem. Furthermore, some provisions authorize the purchase of equipment
he's never heard of and micromanages decisions that would be better left to
officials paid to make them, he said.

Sen. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., disagreed, saying the bill would help restore
balance in the nation's anti-drug strategy.

"During the late 1980s, our drug policies produced encouraging results,"
Coverdell said at a joint meeting of the Senate's Foreign Relations
Committee and its Caucus on International Narcotics Control.

"We have, since 1992, virtually abandoned this approach. ... The bottom line
is that as we shifted resources away from interdiction, it became easier for
drug traffickers to transport illegal drugs into this country." McCaffrey
insisted the amount of money spent on interdiction has increased in recent
years and is being spent more efficiently than a decade ago, and that the
bill infringes on the authority of the president and the secretary of state.

The House also voted 396 -9 to pass a separate bill that would establish
several programs designed to reduce the use of illegal drugs in the United
States, including one that would promote medications used to treat
addiction. It also would authorize $195 million each year to expand an
anti-drug media campaign which has been operating on a trial basis in only a
few cities nationwide.

- - - - The House bill is H.R. 4300. The Senate bill is S. 2341.

Copyright 1998 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst