White House Ups AntiDrug Spending

WASHINGTON (AP) In an unprecedented move, President Clinton's drug
policy director ordered the Defense Department on Thursday to add $141
million to its planned spending on drugcontrol programs in the next budget
year.

In a letter to Defense Secretary William Cohen, Barry McCaffrey said his
office could not certify that the Pentagon's proposed $809 million
drugfighting budget for fiscal 1999 was adequate to implement the
president's drugcontrol policy.

``To correct the deficiencies,'' the Pentagon must include an additional
$141 million in drug control programs to strengthen operations in Mexico,
the Andes, the Caribbean and along the U.S. southern border, McCaffrey wrote.

At the Pentagon, spokesman Kenneth Bacon said $140 million is excessive
``at a time when we are being asked to do more with less.''

``In some cases we believe that the Office of National Drug Control Policy
is requesting more money than it can spend productively,'' Bacon said. ``In
another case, we believe it is requesting money for programs that should be
financed by other government agencies.

In a separate matter, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that
would keep McCaffrey's agency, the Office of National Drug Control Policy,
open for four more years. Sen. Joseph Biden Jr., DDel., said he remained
concerned about the bill's chances for final passage.

``Because of the partisan way this issue is being handled in the House, the
continued existence of the drug office is in doubt and the entire operation
of our national drug effort is in danger,'' Biden said.

Although the Defense Department has not yet submitted its request for
fiscal 1999 spending to the Office of Management and Budget, McCaffrey's
office said the Pentagon was planning to ask for $809 million for
counterdrug operations. That is virtually identical to the amount it is
spending in the current fiscal 1998 budget.

According to statistics provided by McCaffrey's office, the Pentagon's
counterdrug budget is only 1.3 percent higher than in fiscal 1990, while
the total federal government spending in this area has increased 63.7
percent in the time.

Before sending his letter to Cohen, McCaffrey had it reviewed by a senior
legal adviser, Charles Blanchard. In a memo to McCaffrey, Blanchard wrote
that McCaffrey has legal authority not only to certify as to the adequacy
of a department's budget request, but also to order it to put specific
items in its budget request.

McCaffrey said that in order for his office to certify the Pentagon's
counterdrug budget for 1999, Cohen would have to add four specific items.
They are:

A $75 million program to disrupt the cocaine export industry in South
America's Andes region.

A $24 million Mexican initiative to expand U.S. operational support to
detection and monitoring missions in Mexican airspace and territorial seas
and help the Mexico government develop its own capability to interdict
illegal drug trafficking. This project would help implement a declaration
on U.S.Mexican counterdrug cooperation signed by Clinton and Mexican
President Ernesto Zedillo in May.

A $30 million increase in National Guard counterdrug operations.

A Caribbean initiative, costing $12 million, that would target drug
traffickingrelated crime and violence in the Caribbean region, including
South Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This would help
implement commitments Clinton made at the Caribbean summit meeting held in
Barbados in May.

With onethird of U.S.bound cocaine and marijuana passing through the
Caribbean, the United States has been pressing Caribbean nation's leaders
to crack down on drug trafficking and money laundering. Caribbean leaders
complain the United States has not given them the resources they need.

At the Barbados meeting, Clinton pledged to transfer Air Force C26
surveillance aircraft to Caribbean nations to crack down on narcotics
trafficking, gunrunning and alien smuggling.