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Chairman Souder, Ranking Member Cummings, and Members of the Subcommittee: thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the President's fiscal year 2006 drug control budget, and how its provisions further the President's stated objectives of reducing drug use in America by both adults and our youth.
As the Committee is aware, our national drug control efforts to date have resulted in good news. Drug use among our youth—arguably the most important indicator of our national drug control efforts—is down 17 percent. Crime in America is at a 30-year low. Our efforts to disrupt the demand for and the supply of illicit drugs are making steady progress.
Our continuing commitment to making the drug problem smaller is underscored by an overall increase in the fiscal year 2006 drug control budget of almost $270 million, or 2.2 percent over the fiscal year 2005 enacted level. Of course, drug control is not the only priority reflected within the fiscal year 2006 budget. Other national priorities include the defense of the homeland from attack; the transformation of our military and the support of our troops as they continue fighting the global war on terror; the spread of freedom throughout the world; the promotion of high standards in our schools; and the continuation of pro-growth policies that have helped to produce millions of new jobs and restore confidence in our economy.
The fiscal year 2006 budget adopts a common sense approach to meet our national priorities. It aims to ensure sustained economic expansion by exercising even greater spending restraint than in the past, continuing reductions in the rate of growth in non-security discretionary spending accomplished in each year of the President's first term. In making decisions about spending restraint, program evaluation was guided by three major criteria: whether the program meets the nation's priorities; whether the program meets the President's principles for the use of taxpayer resources; and whether the program produces the intended results. It is important to note that decisions in the second category—regarding the use of taxpayer resources—included an analysis of whether an appropriate federal role can be identified in the program's mission.
The fiscal year 2006 budget provides the resources needed to continue our progress in the three core priorities of the National Drug Control Strategy: Stopping Drug Use Before it Starts; Healing America's Drug Users; and Disrupting the Market.
The overall increase in the federal drug control budget includes a $69.8 million or 2.1 percent increase in domestic law enforcement—the largest portion of the five functional areas of the federal drug control budget at 27 percent. Notable increases for domestic law enforcement include:
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An increase of $15.6 million and 36 positions (including 18 Intelligence Analysts and 2 Agents) to fully exploit, gather, analyze and share intelligence information and maintain and upgrade DEA's intelligence capabilities, to include a modernization of the narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Information System (NADDIS).
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An increase of $22.6 million and 55 Special Agents for the DEA's Priority Targeting Initiative, which 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 Consolidated Priority Organizations Target (CPOT) list.
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An increase of $14.5 million for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force's (OCDETF's) Fusion Center Initiative, which will provide base funding for the ongoing operations and maintenance of the OCDETF Fusion Center beyond FY 2005, developed to collect and analyze drug trafficking and related financial investigative information and to disseminate investigative leads to the OCDETF participants.
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An increase of $50 million to compensate for the redirection of resources from the FBI's direct drug budget to other FBI priorities. This approach will focus additional funds on targeting major drug trafficking organizations and their financial infrastructure, and 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.
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An increase of $5.9 million for the Assistant U.S. Attorney Initiative which will provide forty-one new Assistant United States Attorney positions to address staffing imbalances within the U.S. Attorney workforce and between investigative and prosecutorial resources.
Toward enhanced restraint, the fiscal year 2006 budget proposes more than 150 reductions, reforms and eliminations in non-security discretionary programs. Among the reductions is the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program. The President's budget proposes moving the HIDTA program to the Department of Justice (DOJ) at a reduced fiscal year 2006 funding level of $100 million. The program would maintain a distinct mission and identity, although funding will be administered through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement task Forces (OCDETF) Program.
There are several reasons for moving the HIDTA program to DOJ. Enforcement-related programs such as HIDTA are best administered by the Department of Justice—the arm of the Federal government with the most expertise in law and drug enforcement matters. Shifting the HIDTA program to DOJ will enable law enforcement to target the drug trade in a manner that is strategic and complements DOJ's other drug enforcement efforts.
The HIDTA program is important, and that is why it was not eliminated. The restructured HIDTA program will retain its focus on state and local law enforcement, and on coordinating the drug enforcement efforts of Federal, State and local agencies. DOJ will preserve the program's worthy elements, such as intelligence sharing and fostering multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional law enforcement coordination. DOJ will also ensure that the HIDTA program continues to play a key role in our nation's drug enforcement efforts, particularly those involving coordination with state and local departments, in a manner that complements the activities of other existing programs, like OCDETF, and of individual agencies, like the DEA.
The proposed reduction in funding is for the following reasons. First, Congress is aware of the President's commitment to fiscal responsibility and, as previously noted, sustaining economic expansion by exercising fiscal restraint. At a time when discretionary spending is essentially frozen and with a number of competing priorities, some cuts in spending are necessary to meet our national strategic objectives, as noted above.
Second, a frank discussion of the HIDTA program must note its significant growth since its inception in the late 1980s. Originally designed to focus and coordinate anti-trafficking drug enforcement efforts in the areas of the country which have the highest level of drug trafficking, the program has grown to 28 HIDTAs from the original five and now encompasses more than sixty percent of the nation's population. This has expanded the HIDTA program to areas which—despite facing drug activity, including some degree of drug distribution or manufacturing—are not necessarily in the top tier of high-intensity drug trafficking regions.
Third, this Administration has made program performance central to budget decision making. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has concluded, based on their Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) assessment of the HIDTA program during the fiscal years 2004 and 2005, that HIDTA has not been able to demonstrate results.
The President's National Drug Control Strategy has, over the last three years, yielded extremely positive results. The President's fiscal year 2006 budget increases support for our drug control efforts overall. It is the right mix of international, interdiction, prevention, treatment and enforcement efforts to meet the core priorities of the National Drug Control Strategy.
