John Mica: “First I want to take just a moment and thank you as chairman of our subcommittee, I have the honor of serving with you.…”

“First I want to take just a moment and thank you as chairman of our subcommittee, I have the honor of serving with you. I know the hour is late, I know that my colleagues are late, the staff is tired, and we have been working very diligently the past weeks to bring issues before the Congress and the American people of utmost importance, but I really cannot think of any subject that is more important to this Congress or to American society than the question of drug and substance abuse. I want to compliment you, too, taking over as chairman of this subcommittee and immediately dealing with the issue and bringing this issue to the forefront not only of our subcommittee but of the Congress and this administration and the American people. If I might just comment a few minutes. As a Member, a new Member of Congress during the 103d session, I had over 130 members of both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democrat, sign a letter asking the former chairman of the House Committee on Government Operations to hold a hearing, a full hearing on the administration's drug policy. Do you know that we never held a true full hearing on the administration's drug policy? The worse the situation got, the more that this was ignored. In fact, it was totally ignored. Again over 130 Members, both sides, Republicans and Democrats, asked for a hearing and never got a hearing. On the very last day, a hearing was held in one of the subcommittees and it was a sham of a hearing.”