For Immediate Release March 16, 2011

Contact:  Leslie K. Paige 202-467-5334 Luke Gelber 202-467-5318

CAGW’s Spending Cut Alert: National Drug Intelligence Center

(Washington, D.C.) –Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) issued its weekly spending cut alert aimed at eliminating the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), which is funded by the Department of Defense but managed by the Department of Justice. The NDIC is duplicative of the 19 drug intelligence centers that were already in place before its creation.

The NDIC and its mission have been called duplicative and vague since its inception. The NDIC was first funded in 1993 when the late Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) inserted an earmark into a defense authorization bill, which designated the location as Johnstown, Pennsylvania – in his congressional district. An April 1993 GAO report on “Coordination of Intelligence Activities” warned that “law enforcement officials … have questioned the NDIC’s management structure while some are unclear on its mission.” In 2005, a U.S. News & World Report article quoted DEA agent Jim Milford saying, “The bottom line was that we had to actually search for a mission.”

In its 18 years of operation, the NDIC has produced little of value. It has been the subject of scandal surrounding its employees’ frivolous travel expenses and found itself under the knife for budget cuts several times, only to wriggle free through the earmark process. President George W. Bush recommended its termination in his budgets for Fiscal Years (FY) 2006, 2007, and 2008. In 2007, Rep. Murtha confronted Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) on the floor of the House and threatened to remove Rep. Rogers’ earmark requests in the defense appropriations bill and any other earmark “now and forever” for calling attention to the NDIC earmark. In February, 2011, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) submitted an amendment to defund the NDIC in H.R. 1, which was approved by a vote of 262-169. H.R. 1 was approved by the House but rejected by the Senate.

NDIC’s elimination would save taxpayers $44 million in one year and $220 million over five years. Since 2006, it has been among CAGW’s recommendations in Prime Cuts, a compendium of 763 waste-cutting recommendations that would save taxpayers $350 billion in the first year and $2.2 trillion over five years.

“Unfortunately, many members of Congress are more than willing to treat the Departments of Justice and Defense like jobs programs, throwing all cost-benefit analyses out the window,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz. “Like most weeds, the NDIC has proved extremely difficult to kill, despite its uselessness. However, Rep. Murtha is no longer in Congress, and both parties have claimed to be aware that spending cuts are necessary. Pulling up the NDIC by its roots should be an easy, bipartisan choice.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government. The Spending Cut of the Week calls attention to a federal program that is wasteful or duplicative.