SOUDER WANTS ANTI-METH ACTION BY FEDS

Calls White House Strategy 'Appalling'

WASHINGTON White House opposition to congressional efforts to force
more federal money to be spent on fighting methamphetamine is an
insult, Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, said Thursday.

Using hotly charged language, Souder accused the Bush administration
of giving short shrift to anti-meth efforts and to trying to weaken
the drug czar's office.

"The United States Congress wants some action out of this
administration on meth," Souder said. Instead, he said, there's been
an "appalling lack" of an anti-meth strategy.

Despite a threatened veto, the House voted 399-5 Thursday to require
the drug czar's office spend at least $27million to counter abuse of
methamphetamine.

The bill would mandate that at least 10 percent of the budget for
anti-drug TV ads be spent on anti-meth messages and an additional $15
million be spent in meth "hot spots" nationwide.

"Is it so outrageous to ask that 10percent be spent on meth?" Souder
asked of the anti-drug advertising campaign. President Bush has
proposed spending $120 million next year on the program, $20 million
more than Congress approved for this year's commercials.

Thomas Riley, spokesman for the drug czar's office, said Congress set
up the anti-drug campaign to be national and to aim at teen drug use.
Meth is not a problem in major cities, he said, and meth use among
youth has dropped 30 percent in the past four years, he said.

"We're not saying don't have a (advertising) campaign against meth,"
Riley said. "The campaign as it is right now is working, finally, and
is stretched thin. Further constraining it and further limiting it at
a time when it's already very vulnerable, I worry about the effect
that might have on its success."

The bill also would also elevate the drug czar position to a Cabinet
secretary, a move the White House opposes as "infring(ing) on the
prerogatives of the executive."

Like the vice president, budget director, CIA director and nine other
officials, the drug czar is Cabinet-level, meaning he may attend
Cabinet meetings. Souder's bill would designate the job as a Cabinet secretary.

The Senate has not yet acted on the legislation.