Paul Coverdell: “One, as I said a moment ago, I am not very encouraged where we are because this initiative has fallen poorly against the…”

“One, as I said a moment ago, I am not very encouraged where we are because this initiative has fallen poorly against the goals of the Congress and the administration over the last 6 years. The interdiction budget has dropped from over $1 billion in 1991 and 1992, to under $700 million. It got down to $500 million in 1995. Flight hours that are protecting our citizens have dropped from 36,000 to 11,000. Ship days have dropped from 4,000 to 1,700 days. We had one experiment recently in the Coast Guard in Puerto Rico that kept 350-plus million doses of cocaine off American streets. These are all interconnected. The best thing we can have happen is for the child not to get ensnared into the drug war in the first place. I believe that you cannot deal with teenage addiction and separate it from the tobacco bill. I just do not think that is the right thing to do. I think they should be embraced together. I think, given the scope, that this is the No. 1 problem. Given the scope of it, the fact that it would be authorized to consume 20 percent of these revenues, it is perfectly logical and sound. And there would be a revenue base generated to do it. I do not see the revenue base standing behind the good Senator. And I equally am admiring of the work that you have done on this issue. I have respect for it.”