"Fiscal Year 2006 Drug Budget"
February 10, 2005

II. Fiscal Year 2006 Budget Highlights

The President's fiscal year 2006 budget provides significant resources for reducing illegal drug use. The proposed funding levels support the three key priorities of the Strategy. In total, the National Drug Control Budget for fiscal year 2006 is $12.4 billion, an increase of $268.4 million (+2.2 percent) over the fiscal year 2005 enacted level of $12.2 billion.

Demand reduction programs supported by the Department of Health and Human Services will maintain support for innovative approaches targeting early intervention and drug treatment. The budgets of HHS, the Department of Education, and ONDCP also include funding to support important prevention efforts. Funding for supply reduction in the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State, Treasury, and Defense will support operations targeting the economic basis of the drug trade, domestic and international sources of illegal drugs, and trafficking routes to and within the United States . The budget includes significant resources to aid counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan while following through in Colombia and the Andean region.

Prevention

• Education—Student Drug Testing: +$15.4 million. The President's fiscal year 2006 budget proposes $25.4 million for student drug testing programs. This initiative provides competitive grants to support schools in the design and implementation of programs to randomly screen selected students and to intervene with assessment, referral, and intervention for students whose test results indicate they have used illicit drugs. Funding of $2 million made available during each of the first two years of this initiative was used by 79 middle and high school administrators for drug testing programs. These efforts send a message that local community leaders care enough to help those students showing warning signs of drug abuse and that they want to provide a drug free learning environment to all students. With increased funding in FY 2006, more schools will have access to this powerful tool.
• Education—Research-Based Grant Assistance to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs): +$87.5 million. This enhancement will support the implementation of drug prevention or school safety programs, policies, and strategies that research has demonstrated to be effective in reducing youth drug use or violence and for implementation and scientifically based evaluation of additional approaches that show promise of effectiveness. Under this proposed new activity, grantees would be required either to carry out one or more programs, practices, or interventions that rigorous evaluation has demonstrated to be effective, or to carry out a rigorous evaluation of a promising program, practice, or intervention to test its effectiveness and thereby increase the knowledge base on what works in the field. In making awards, the Department of Education would ensure the equitable distribution of grants among urban, suburban, and rural LEAs.

Treatment

• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)—Access to Recovery: +$50.8 million. Through Access to Recovery (ATR), the President is committed to providing individuals seeking alcohol and drug treatment with vouchers for a range of appropriate community-based services. The FY 2006 budget proposes $150 million for ATR, an increase of $50.8 million over the FY 2005 enacted level. By providing vouchers, ATR promotes client choice, expands access to a broad range of clinical treatment and recovery support services, and increases substance abuse treatment capacity. Vouchers may be used to access a variety of services, including those provided by faith- and community-based programs.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)—Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT): +$5.8 million. The purpose of this initiative is to intervene early with users and stop drug use before it leads to abuse or dependence. This initiative will improve treatment delivery to achieve a sustained recovery for those who are dependent on drugs. SBIRT is designed to expand the continuum of care available to include screening, brief interventions, brief treatments, and referrals to appropriate care. By placing the program in both community and medical settings such as emergency rooms, trauma centers, health clinics, and community health centers, the program has the ability to reach a broad segment of the community.
• Office of Justice Programs—Drug Courts Program: +$30.6 million. The President's Budget includes funding of $70.1 million for the drug courts program in FY 2006. This enhancement will increase the scope and quality of drug court services with the goal of improving retention in, and successful completion of, drug court programs.

Market Disruption

• DEA—Priority Targeting Initiative: +$22.6 million and 55 Special Agents. This initiative will strengthen DEA's efforts to disrupt or dismantle drug trafficking and money laundering Priority Target Organizations, including those linked to trafficking organizations on the CPOT list.
• DEA—Central/Southwest Asia Operations: +$22 million. This proposal will provide permanent funding for Operation Containment in Afghanistan and will ensure full DEA support for the on-going interagency efforts of poppy investigation and enforcement. DEA, in combination with the Departments of State and Defense, is implementing a comprehensive counternarcotics strategy aimed at reducing heroin production in Afghanistan and contributing to the stabilization and redevelopment of the country.
• Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF)—Fusion Center Initiative: +$14.5 million. This request provides base funding for the ongoing operations and maintenance of the OCDETF Fusion Center beyond FY 2005. The Fusion Center has been developed to collect and analyze drug trafficking and related financial investigative information and to disseminate investigative leads to the OCDETF participants.
• OCDETF—Redirection of FBI Drug Resources: +$50.0 million. This initiative redirects $50 million from the FBI's direct drug budget by providing these resources as part of OCDETF. This funding can be effectively focused on targeting major drug trafficking organizations and their financial infrastructure. The infusion of these resources will increase OCDETF's ability to disrupt and dismantle major international, national and regional networks, particularly to the extent that such organizations are engaged in financial crimes, public corruption and other activities within the expertise of the FBI.
• OCDETF—Assistant U.S. Attorney Initiative: +$5.9 million. This request provides 41 new attorney positions to address existing staffing imbalances within the U.S. Attorney workforce and, thereby, achieves an appropriate balance between investigative and prosecutorial resources.
• Department of State—Andean Counterdrug Initiative (ACI): $734.5 million. This request will fund projects needed to continue the enforcement, border control, crop reduction, alternative development, institution building, administration of justice, and human rights programs in the region. The ACI budget provides support to Colombia , Peru , Bolivia , Ecuador , Brazil , Venezuela and Panama . Also included in the FY 2006 ACI request is $40.0 million for the Critical Flight Safety Program. This program will stop degradation and extend the life of Vietnam-era aircraft in order to maintain a viable fleet for counternarcotics missions.
• Department of State— Afghanistan : +$166.2 million. The President's Budget includes an increase of $166.2 million in support of counternarcotics programs in Afghanistan . This enhancement will bring the Department's total Afghanistan counternarcotics funding to $188.0 million in FY 2006. Funds will be used to support the Central Poppy Eradication Force of 100-member Afghan teams to continue the annual poppy crop eradication campaign and to continue to develop Afghan drug law enforcement capacity. These resources will also support a demand reduction program and a public affairs campaign aimed at reducing use and publicizing the eradication program.

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