Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990 TAG: 9007200614
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The House agreed Thursday to restore the proposed cut in fiscal 1991 drug education and treatment programs as it approved a $170 billion appropriations bill covering labor, health and education spending.
The outspoken Bennett had denounced Congress as "cheap, dishonest and sneaky" after the House Appropriations Committee last week approved a bill that contained cuts in President Bush's requests for drug demand-reduction programs.
Bush had sought $252 million, but the panel approved only $21 million.
"I just resent that," Rep. Silvio Conte of Massachusetts, ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, said of Bennett. "He didn't just say Democrats. He said we're all a bunch of clowns up here."
"Bill Bennett has lost his effectiveness with the Congress," said Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Select Committee on Narcotics. "He has now seen fit to insult the Congress rather than consult the Congress."
The House approved the appropriations bill 359-58, after defeating a series of amendments that would have cut total spending.
Democrats have strongly criticized Bennett in the past for not putting enough money into and emphasis on treatment and education. Bennett's discovery of the hidden cuts - which were never debated in public sessions - politically embarrassed House Democrats.
Rep. William Natcher, D-Ky., chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that wrote the bill, offered an amendment on the floor that restored the cuts.
The amendment was sought by House Democratic leaders and approved on a voice vote, but only after congressmen paraded before the podium to attack Bennett.
"If our drug czar is going to wind up hyperventilating in public every time he doesn't get a dollar he wanted, then I suggest he go back to chain smoking so he can calm down," said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.
Bennett said later he was pleased the money was restored and that the changes represented drug treatment for as many as 100,000 people.
"I know Democrats are upset. I know some Republicans are upset, too. And I'm sorry about the rancor this has caused," Bennett said. "But we needed this money. We were taken completely by surprise on these cuts, and raising a ruckus seemed the only way to get this money back."
Appropriations Committee members said they had agreed to the cuts because much of the money in the programs' 1990 budget had not yet been spent.
Natcher, in an interview, said only 29 percent of $1.1 billion in block grants to the states for drug treatment had been spent in the first 9 1/2 months of the current fiscal year.
by CNB