Tony Thurmond: “this amendment, offered by Senator Coverdell and other Senators including myself, would fully fund the President's…”

“this amendment, offered by Senator Coverdell and other Senators including myself, would fully fund the President's International Narcotics Control Account request of $213 million for drug interdiction and eradication efforts. Funds would come from the International Organizations and Program accounts, which are $31 million over the President's request, and from Development Assistance. Mr. President, Mr. Matthew Robinson, writing in Investors Business Daily, has brought out certain points which I think are very important. He says: The Drug Enforcement Agency has lost 227 agents from September '92 to September '95. Clinton issued an executive order reducing military interdiction efforts, including the elimination of 1,000 antidrug positions. He shortened mandatory minimum sentences for drug traffickers. He tried to slash the staff of the Office of National Drug Control Policy by 80% to 25 from 146. Congress has restored funding for some of those slots. In his '95 budget, he proposed cutting funds for the U.S. Customs Service, the DEA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Coast Guard. The result would have meant 621 fewer agents. Congress again restored some of this funding. The drug effort has suffered on another level, critics say. The first is in the actual fight against street drugs. Interdiction efforts have suffered under Clinton, drug warriors say.”