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ATTORNEY GENERAL ASHCROFT ANNOUNCES $120.56 MILLION

WASHINGTON, DC Attorney General John Ashcroft today announced that in the president's budget request for 2002, key Department of Justice programs to fight drugs will receive a funding increase of $120.56 million.

"Drug abuse has ruined the lives of too many Americans,"Ashcroft said. With the additional resources, we will strongly enforce existing drug laws and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law those individuals who sell drugs and entice our children to become addicted."

Under the proposed budget, an additional $30 million will provide critical support to DEA's FIREBIRD network, which provides an information technology infrastructure for the agency. FIREBIRD serves as a communications backbone and provides automation support for DEA's global services. Improving the DEA's central computer system will facilitate agents' communication with one another, allow for quicker response time and provide better access to information from remote locations.

An increase of $15.06 million in funding and 62 additional positions will help enhance DEA staffing in important areas such as the Southwest Border, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia. The funding will strengthen DEA's Special Operations Division and Investigative Technology programs, providing linguist support, state-of-the-art equipment, technical support personnel and training to track down offenders and prevent importation of illegal drugs.

Under the budget, an additional $13.1 million and 69 positions will bolster DEA's laboratory operations, providing resources to avoid backlog and purchase advanced equipment. The funding increase will aid agents in drug and evidence analysis, crime scene investigations and clandestine laboratory seizures. It will provide agents with resources to arrest and prosecute more efficiently.

The budget request also addresses the fact that nearly one in four inmates in the United States prison system today is a drug offender. A funding increase of $3.01 million will expand the Federal Bureau of Prisons' (BOP) Residential Drug Abuse Treatment programs, increasing BOP's drug abuse program outreach by 3,950 inmates. Nearly $15 million will benefit the Bureau of Prison's Offender Reentry Program, which will help inmates reenter the community drug-free.

The budget also provides an $11 million increase to funding for the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment grants funded by the Office of Justice Programs, which supports drug and alcohol treatment programs in state and local correctional facilities.

To help local law enforcement agencies attack methamphetamine, the budget also provides $48.39 million to clean up meth labs and track down offenders. Of the 412 state and local agencies responding to the National Drug Threat Survey, 139 rate methamphetamine as one of the greatest drug threats in their areas. Agencies throughout the Pacific, Southwest and West Central regions continue to report increases in the production, availability and use of methamphetamine.

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