107th Congress

National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign: How to Ensure the Program Operates Efficiently and Effectively? Hearing Before the House Government Reform -- Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources -- August 1, 2001

Members Present

Representative Mark Souder (R-IN), Chair; Representatives Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Bob Barr (R-GA), and Ben Gilman (R-NY).

Witnesses:

Panel One: Edward Jurith, Acting Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP); Bernard Ungar, Director, Physical Infrastructure Team, General Accounting Office; Robert Hast, Director, Office of Special Investigations, General Accounting Office; Captain Mark Westin, Contract Administrator, Fleet & Industrial Supply Center, U.S. Department of the Navy; and Susan David, Deputy Chief of Prevention Research, NIDA.

Summary:

Purpose of Hearing: The hearing was held to consider how to ensure that the billion dollar Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, now in its fourth year, operates effectively and efficiently to enable it to have a meaningful impact to prevent drug abuse among young people. The Campaign has recently been beset with problems concerning the accounting system set up by Ogilvy & Mather, the company tasked with designing the Campaign, and charges of over-billing the Government for its services.

Opening Statements: To open the hearing, Representative Souder emphasized his belief in the Media Campaign's goal of educating children and parents about the dangers of drug use. He did have strong concerns, however, that the GAO found substantial evidence of mismanagement on the part of ONDCP, as well as potential fraud on the part of their contractor. The Campaign's focus, Souder claimed, "was too important to get off track." Representative Cummings praised ONDCP for creating such a comprehensive design for the program. He noted that he was particularly impressed with the Campaign's outreach to minorities. Mr. Cummings, too, was troubled by reports of possible fraud, but felt that many of the issues have been addressed by ONDCP and all affiliated with the Campaign in the wake of the GAO report.

Statements of Witnesses and Questions:

Panel I: In his statement, Mr. Jurith told the Subcommittee that ONDCP took very seriously the admission on the part of their contractor of over-billing. He pointed out that the agency had worked diligently with GAO and the Navy to ensure the contract problems were addressed. The biggest issue, Mr. Jurith continued, was whether or not the current contract met the Government's needs. In his testimony, Mr. Unger detailed the investigation undertaken by GAO, and their findings. GAO concluded that the contractor never had in place the proper accounting system to begin with, which led to the subsequent problems. Captain Westin then explained to the Subcommittee how the Navy had taken over the contract's oversight and the steps taken to administer it properly. Lastly, Ms. David testified on the work done by NIDA, which is charged with producing the final evaluation of the Campaign. She gave the Subcommittee a broad overview of the preliminary findings, and described some of the means by which they hoped to measure the Campaign's effectiveness.

Questions: The majority of the questions were directed to Mr. Jurith, the Acting Director of ONDCP. The Subcommittee Members asked continuously about the nature of the contract with Ogilvy & Mather and the potential mismanagement of those involved. Representative Barr continuously pressed Mr. Jurith on whether or not he intended to renew the media contract, given the circumstances. Repeatedly, Mr. Barr insisted that ONDCP should suspend the contract immediately, and could do so under his understanding of the law. Mr. Jurith contended that there were several procedural steps that would have to be taken for this to happen, and his decision would be made pending the results of an on-going Department of Justice investigation.

Representative Souder posed the only questions asked of Ms. David, the NIH witness. In trying to learn more about the Campaign's evaluation, Representative Souder inquired as to what results were available at this point. Ms. David explained that there seemed to be some small positive changes in the data on attitudes towards marijuana, though it was too early to link these findings to the Campaign itself. Representative Souder then asked when she thought any conclusions might be available. The witness responded that there would be more data by the time of the next reporting in the fall, as well as next spring. Ms. David thought that a clearer picture would emerge by then. Continuing his questioning, Representative Souder asked more detailed questions of the study's design. Ms. David explained that the study involved a national sample to understand what kinds of exposure parents and children have had to the ad campaign. The study has been designed to be able to track any changes in attitudes and beliefs about drugs of abuse. Finally, Representative Sounder asked if data was being collected that could be broken down by regional differences. Ms. David affirmed that it could.

Prepared by Keith Van Wagner/NIDA, August 3, 2001