REPUBLICANS PLAN MAJOR CAMPAIGN FOR DRUG-FREE AMERICA

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans are preparing to launch a highly publicized
election-year initiative to bring about a drug-free America.

In an event planned for next week and to be staged like the House GOP's
mass 1994 signing of its Contract With America, more than 100 House
Republicans are expected to endorse a dozen wide-ranging anti-drug bills.

One bill calls for doubling the Border Patrol to 20,000 and restoring
controversial military patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., formed the Speaker's Task Force for a
Drug-Free America one month ago, and it already has a comprehensive
national "battle plan" for reaching its goal within four years.

The initiative will be comprised of about a dozen bills that are in various
stages of completion and will be unveiled one at a time at different media
events over the following eight weeks or so, according to strategic
planning documents of the task force.

One bill, to be titled the Drug-Free Congress Bill, would require members
of Congress and their staff members to take periodic drug tests.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, a member of the task force, is drafting a
bill titled the Drug-Free Borders Act.

A member of Hunter's staff confirmed that the bill is in the works. But he
declined to discuss its details publicly in advance of next week.

The bill reportedly once again will call for doubling the size of the
Border Patrol, to 20,000. The patrol is just about double what it was only
a few years ago after four or five straight years of explosive growth.

The bill, as it is currently written, also would allow the Border Patrol to
engage in a hot pursuit when a vehicle flees agents.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service, under intense community
pressure because of fatal accidents in the past involving hot pursuits, has
abandoned the practice.

The bill would restore military monitoring missions along the border that
had been suspended after Marines from Camp Pendleton fired on and killed a
Texas youth. The boy had been carrying a rifle while herding goats in a
remote border area where the Marines were secretly watching the border for
drug-smuggling activities. The Marines believed he was firing on them.

The bill would provide $11 million for additional X-ray machines used to
detect drugs in trucks and cars entering the country. A machine being used
on an experimental basis at the Otay Mesa port of entry has proven a
popular success with anti-drug officials.

It also would provide for the deployment of state-of-the-art tire shredders
to combat smugglers and border runners who fill their tires with silicone
or other substances in an effort to drive over spikes intended to deflate
their tires and stop them.

Republicans are planning to unveil their initiative next week in a
gathering on the west side of the Capitol and are planning to sport blue
ribbons as a symbol of their commitment to fighting drugs. Then they will
sign a "Declaration of Commitment" and hope to lure some Democratic
supporters to the event

They also are considering for their "Legislative Deployment Ceremony" a
ticking digital "Death Clock" to represent the approximate "number of kids
using or dying from drugs as we speak."

The clock awaits Gingrich's approval.

Copyright 1998 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.