Political Quotes

“First, it reinstates two-thirds of the money for drug courts, mandatory drug testing, drug treatment backed up by certain punishment for 55,000 offenders now on probation. They would all be put into this program. It provides for two-thirds of the funding that we originally agreed to. The second thing it does is allow States to continue to have the option to have drug treatment in their prisons. We are not talking about drug treatment for people out on the street; we are talking about treatment for people in prisons, administered by States in prisons. The third thing it does, it reinstates the money--$10 million--for rural drug enforcement. That function was zeroed out. Again, I will not go into all the arguments, but yesterday we spent a lot of time and I pointed out that the violent crime rate and the drug problem in rural America is increasing at a faster rate than it is in urban America. Every single, solitary Governor that I am aware of, every single, solitary local official that I am aware of, has said on drug matters, in rural areas, we need help.”