Clinton To Require States To Study Inmate Drug Use

Budget Will Provide $200 Million For Initiative

By John King/CNN

WASHINGTON (Jan. 11) -- President Bill Clinton will sign a directive Monday afternoon requiring states to conduct annual studies of drug use by prison inmates and parolees, CNN has learned.

The directive is a follow-up to a 1996 law that denies federal prison funds to states that do not give drug tests to prisoners and parolees. Those testing programs must be in place by this March.

Sources say Clinton will ask Congress to give states the authority to use federal prison funds to pay for drug testing. And his new budget will propose nearly $200 million in new spending to help states comply with the federal requirements, including:

• $85 million in grants to help states develop new testing programs.

• $5 million for a smaller program to test juvenile offenders for drug use.

• An increase of more than $10 million to help states pay for drug treatment programs.

Under Clinton's directive, to be signed at an Oval Office event Monday afternoon, states will have to submit annual reports on the levels of drug use it finds among inmates and parolees.

Clinton's drug-testing initiative comes on the heels of a number of election-year proposals to expand Medicare and spend $22 billion on new child care programs.

In the wake of that flurry of proposals, some Republicans are complaining that the president seems to have a newfound fondness for spending tax money.

"Going into the 21st century, it should not be Bill Clinton's vision of more government, bigger bureaucracy. What it ought to be is less taxes," said House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich (R-Ohio) on CNN's "Late Edition With Frank Sesno."

Weekend Jan. 11 & 12, 1998

• Clinton To Require States To Study Inmate Drug Use
• DNC Drops Ban On Money From Non-Citizen U.S. Residents
• Clinton Stresses Urgent Need For Human-Cloning Ban