Chuck Grassley: “I am pleased to support additional funding for the Office of National Drug Control Policy to cover certain salary and…”

“I am pleased to support additional funding for the Office of National Drug Control Policy to cover certain salary and expenses. The efforts by the new director, General McCaffrey, to restore the effectiveness and credibility of that office must be welcomed as a step in the right direction--at last. In supporting this legislation, I am expressing my hope and that of many of my colleagues that the administration will now put the drug issue back into the picture of its policy priorities. As many Members in both the House and Senate have remarked in the last several years, we have seen little in the way of serious leadership or direction from the administration on this issue. Drug policy sank without a trace almost from day one when the President fired virtually the whole of the drug czar's staff at that time. Lee Brown, his first incumbent, never had a chance. Without staff, without support, without credibility, he was left to languish in obscurity along with drug policy. Now we are preparing to vote to restore funding to that office in order to reinstate the positions cut in 1993. I hope everyone appreciates the irony of this process. Nevertheless, if restoring these positions will put us back on the track of serious and sustained narcotics control policies, then it is money well spent. In doing this, however, we are engaging in an act of faith. We have seen no performance yet. What we are doing is investing in a possibility.…”