Senate OKs $9.4-Billion Anti-Drug Plan

The Senate Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a $9.4-billion anti-drug program--about $1.1 billion more than President Bush had requested--in the biggest congressional attack so far against what many consider the nation’s leading domestic problem.

The package, adopted on a 97-2 vote with White House backing after initial coolness toward the increased spending advocated by Democrats, was added to a transportation appropriations bill that sailed through the Senate on a 99-0 vote.

It will now be considered by a Senate-House conference committee before a final version is sent back to both chambers and then forwarded to the President. Although the House did not include drug funds in the transportation bill, Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) said he thought differences could be worked out.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) hailed the outcome as vindication for Democratic demands that Bush’s anti-drug plan be expanded and refocused to put added emphasis on preventive education and treatment of addicts.

All but two Republicans voted for the additional funds, and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said that spending to control narcotics may rise to $40 billion or $50 billion within four or five years.

“We want to save a generation if we can, and it may take a generation to do it,” Dole said.

Mitchell said that the result is a victory for the American people, adding: “The proposal submitted by the President was painfully inadequate for the task.”

Bush sent a $7.9-billion drug plan to Congress three weeks ago, an increase of $716 million above the previous level of spending, with more than two-thirds of the total earmarked for law enforcement.

Following sharp Democratic criticism that Bush’s plan did not go far enough, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) proposed an additional $2.2 billion and greater emphasis on prevention and rehabilitation.

While a White House spokesman instantly accused Byrd of “price-tag” politics, Senate Republicans began a lengthy series of talks that led to the compromise agreement that sailed through the Senate.

Negotiators decided to raise anti-drug spending by $900 million and to include another $200 million for juvenile justice programs that Bush did not request in the expanded plan. They also added another $400 million that the President requested earlier this year to pay for an anti-crime package.

Of the increase, $800 million would be allocated to education, treatment and prevention and $100 million would be used for additional law enforcement grants to states and cities.

Under the bipartisan agreement, a separate package of the President’s proposals to expand the use of the death penalty and place new restrictions on money laundering by drug kingpins would be assured of a vote before the Senate quits for the year.

In a related move, the Senate approved by voice vote an amendment introduced by California’s two senators, Democrat Alan Cranston and Republican Pete Wilson, urging William J. Bennett, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, to designate Los Angeles, San Diego, New York and Miami as high-intensity drug trafficking areas eligible for additional federal law enforcement assistance.

Wilson joined with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) to sponsor another Senate-passed amendment to earmark $50 million for treatment of babies born to mothers addicted to drugs.

The $11.9-billion transportation bill approved by the Senate includes a permanent ban on smoking on all domestic airline flights.