Norman D. Dicks: “I appreciate the gentleman's usual zeal for finding savings in the budget, but I believe his amendment goes too far to…”

“I appreciate the gentleman's usual zeal for finding savings in the budget, but I believe his amendment goes too far to achieve savings without considering the impacts. NDIC plays an important role in analyzing and disseminating information to law enforcement and the intelligence community about the production, trafficking, and consumption of illegal drugs. It produces the annual drug threat assessments, as well as local and regional assessments. DOJ is proposing a reduced funding level for NDIC in 2012, along with the realignment of some of its functions to the Drug Enforcement Administration. We will have to look closely at that proposal to ensure it would not set us back in dealing with the drug threat. But, in any case, one simply cannot eliminate an agency overnight. NDIC performs significant functions that are critical to our law enforcement efforts, and those functions can't be simply shut down and transferred without significant planning. NDIC has been operating under the current CR for several months and has been obligated a significant amount of funding already, so there is no way to cut its funding for the year to zero. In fact, CBO scores the amendment as saving only $16 million in budget authority, not $34 million. I urge my colleagues to defeat this Flake amendment.”