Trump to cut White House ‘drug czar’
Decision comes amid opioid crisis
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is proposing to gut the budget of the White House “drug czar” by 95 percent, effectively eliminating the decades-old Office of National Drug Control Policy, the lead federal agency responsible for managing and coordinating drug policy, according to a memo that its acting director sent Friday to agency employees.
The draft budget plan comes as the nation is struggling with an escalating opioid epidemic. Ending opioid addiction was a centerpiece of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and he drew support from many of the rural areas and small working-class towns hit hardest by the drug crisis. In March, President Donald Trump commissioned a new addiction task force to help combat the opioid crisis, tapping his friend and former rival New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to lead the fight.
But in an email sent to full-time employees, Richard Baum, the acting director of the office, said the administration’s proposed cuts for the fiscal year that begins in October “reflects a nearly 95 percent” reduction in the agency’s budget. The proposed $364 million cut would leave a budget of just $24 million and eliminate its two major programs.
Mr. Baum wrote the cuts are “at odds with the fact that the president has tasked us with supporting his Commission on Combatting Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.” He called them “drastic” and “frankly heartbreaking.”
Roughly half the office’s staff, or 33 full-time employees, would be eliminated, the memo said.
“That budget wouldn’t pay the heating bill at the Pentagon,” said Barry McCaffrey, a retired U.S. Army general, who headed the office under President Bill Clinton between 1996 and 2001. “It sends a terrible message. Why send this bizarre political signal in the middle of what is without question a major health-care crisis in America? It’s very strange.”
Established at the height of the nation’s cocaine epidemic in the late 1980s, the office has served a highly symbolic role as the coordinator of the nation’s drug war. It provided a national pulpit for its high-profile directors, known informally as “drug czars,” who have also included former education secretary William Bennett, former Florida Gov. Robert Martinez and former Houston Mayor Lee Brown. The directors had budgetary authority and access to the Oval Office.
A coalition representing hundreds of drug prevention, law enforcement and health groups is planning to send a letter of protest Monday to the White House.
The office “brings essential expertise to the table on complex drug issues, expertise that would otherwise be missing or dispersed across multiple agencies,” said the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. “It is more important than ever for ONDCP to remain a strong voice in the White House and a visible presence nationally.”
The groups include the National District Attorneys Association, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, and Young People in Recovery, an addiction-recovery advocacy group.
One of the office’s two signature efforts is the Drug-Free Communities Support Program, the nation’s largest drug-prevention initiative, which funds 5,000 local anti-drug coalitions. It enjoys broad bipartisan support.
The other is the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, which coordinates anti-drug-trafficking efforts by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
The two programs are highly popular, and cutting them would face congressional opposition. Several members of Congress issued statements Friday condemning the proposed cuts, calling them shortsighted.
“I’ve known and worked with our drug czars for more than 20 years, and this agency is critical to our efforts to combat drug abuse in general, and this opioid epidemic, in particular,” Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said in a statement.