Bush Seeking $1.1 Billion More for Drug War in 1991

President Bush, claiming his anti-drug fight already is showing signs of success, Thursday unveiled Phase II--same policy, more money.

The new plan contains no major departures from the first phase of the drug war, which was begun last year. However, it requests a substantial increase in funds--roughly $1.1 billion more, for a total of $10.6 billion.

“We’ve made some notable progress,” Bush told members of the American Newspaper Publisher’s Assn. as he announced his plans, but “it’s clear we’re only getting started.”

Later, in a press conference, Bush described the anti-drug fight as “the big one . . . a test” for his Administration and “every state, every local government, the people.”

So far, Bush’s aides insist, that test is being passed.

“Last year, there were many more people saying the war on drugs was not winnable,” drug policy coordinator William J. Bennett said. People considered the problem to be “like Godzilla,” but now “we’ve got a strong rope and we’re building a cage for him.”

In the meantime, the cost of the anti-drug campaign will continue to escalate. “In 1990, drug funding totaled almost $9.5 billion . . . the largest increase in history,” Bush said in his speech. “Funding for fiscal ’91 will be expanded by more than $1 billion,” to $10.6 billion, “and outlays will increase 41% this year. In fact, with this request, the federal drug budget will be 69% higher than it was when I took office in 1989.”

In Phase I of his drug plan, Bush offered what he called the country’s first comprehensive effort to coordinate all federal anti-drug efforts into one campaign. The money provided aid to Latin American nations, education, treatment and law enforcement.

Similarly, about 29% of the money for Phase II will be spent overseas on drug interdiction efforts and aid to Latin American nations. Another 29% will be spent on efforts to reduce domestic drug demand, such as education and treatment programs. The remaining 42% goes to federal law enforcement.

The biggest single increase in Bush’s plan would go to the military, which plans to devote roughly $1 billion of its estimated $295-billion budget to anti-drug efforts next year, mostly to monitor and track drug shipments entering the country.

In addition to proposing more spending, Bush reiterated his call for an expanded federal death penalty. His proposal would allow the execution of drug kingpins who kill law enforcement officers or whose actions lead to the deaths of others.

“We do not believe that the death penalty alone is a solution,” said John Walters, Bennett’s chief of staff. But, he added, for the most serious drug-related crimes, the ultimate penalty “is just.”

As previously reported, the new plan designates five areas of the country--including Los Angeles County--as “high intensity” drug trafficking regions, eligible for additional federal resources. Although the added federal resources are minimal--$25 million this year and $50 million next year spread across all five regions--local officials have been furiously lobbying for the designations.

In part to calm that lobbying, the official plan released Thursday noted that the Los Angeles designation “could include” Orange County and other surrounding areas.

As a practical matter, however, the new money will go only to federal agencies, not state or local bodies, and the federal agencies based in Los Angeles have jurisdiction throughout the federal central judicial district of California--a multicounty region stretching from San Luis Obispo south to Orange County and east into Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

San Diego and Imperial counties will be designated as part of a Southwest Border high-intensity area.

Although the high-intensity designation will bring only a small increase in funds, federal officials note that, even without the designation, the government will, under Bush’s plan, spend roughly $169 million on anti-drug efforts in Los Angeles and the surrounding counties. That would be an 11% increase over the level for the current year.

The spending in the Los Angeles region--which includes everything from FBI officers to federal funds for treatment centers--is considerably lower than in other major drug-trafficking centers. In Miami, Bush is proposing $223 million for next year; $436 million for New York, and $187 million for Houston. Administration officials Thursday could not offer a reason for the differences.

As he did last year, Bush pledged to increase federal spending on anti-drug efforts “without adding to the budget deficit” or raising taxes. He refused to say what federal programs might have to be cut to accomplish that goal, although some answers to that question may be disclosed when Bush announces his overall federal budget proposal Monday.

Virtually every federal agency, from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Pentagon to the national research laboratory at Los Alamos, N. M., has been busily reworking existing programs to make them eligible for the growing flood of anti-drug funds. Given that activity, Congress, as it did last year, is almost certain to add even more money to the anti-drug war to fund programs favored by congressional Democrats.

Thursday, Bush’s plan drew praise from Republican lawmakers and mixed reactions from Democrats. The new plan has “big holes in it, but it’s a lot more than we had before” Bush started emphasizing the issue, said Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), who is chairman of the House Committee on Narcotics and Drug Abuse.

On Wednesday, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), the Senate Democrats’ chief spokesman on drug issues, had proposed a plan that would spend $14.6 billion next year. Biden has criticized Bush for placing too much emphasis on casual drug use, which already is in decline. His plan would add considerably more money to efforts to treat hard-core drug addicts.

Adding more money would be fine, said Bennett, who lost several fights within the Administration over spending levels. “You can always spend more money.”