	Introduction and Background

Located in the Executive Office of the President, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was created by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 to coordinate the federal government's War on Drugs. The principal responsibilities of the Director of ONDCP, who is often referred to as the "drug czar," include
establishing policies, objectives, and priorities for the National Drug Control program; annually promulgating the National Drug Control Strategy and coordinating and overseeing the strategy's implementation by the respective drug control agencies of the federal government; making recommendations to the President regarding changes in the organization, management, budgets, and allocation of federal personnel engaged in drug enforcement; consulting with and assisting state and local governments with respect to their relations with federal drug control agencies and programs; appearing before committees and subcommittees of Congress to represent the drug policies of the executive branch; and notifying any federal drug control agency if its policies are not in compliance with the National Drug Control Strategy and transmitting a copy of the notification to the President. 6344 , the Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006, was signed into law ( P.L. 109 - 469 ) on December 29, 2006, reauthorizing ONDCP through FY2010. Legislative Activities in the 111th Congress

		Senate Confirmation of New ONDCP Leadership

The nomination of Seattle police chief R. Gil Kerlikowske to be Director of National Drug Control Policy in the Obama Administration was received in the Senate on March 16, 2009, and referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. He went on to state, "There will be a renewed focus on evidence-based approaches to reduce demand for drugs, through prevention as well as treatment." The full Senate considered and approved his nomination by a vote of 91-1 on May 7, 2009. On April 10, 2009, President Obama announced his selection of A. Thomas McLellan to be Deputy Director of ONDCP. Reauthorization bills therefore will likely be introduced and considered by the 111 th Congress. In his opening statement, Chairman Kucinich set forth issues concerning "ONDCP's accountability and overall effectiveness" to be covered at the hearing, including
the lack of transparency and accountability at ONDCP, which impairs ONDCP's and Congress's ability to determine which federal drug control programs are effective in combating drug abuse; the failure of ONDCP to include in the national drug control budget "all funding requests for any drug control activity, including costs attributable to drug law enforcement activities such as prosecuting and incarcerating federal drug law offenders," as required by the reauthorization act; ONDCP's unwillingness "to comply with the standards of accountability Congress has imposed" in providing Congress with the reports mandated by the reauthorization act; the difficulty faced by Congress in determining whether progress is being made in combating drug abuse because ONDCP "doesn't employ consistent or useful performance measures and frequently shifts its policy goals"; and the imbalance in the national drug control budget between supply-side programs (such as source-country eradication and interdiction) and demand-side initiatives (such as prevention and treatment), with the supply side receiving a growing share of the budget "despite research that demonstrates that demand-side approaches are generally more cost-effective than supply-side approaches." The Deputy Director for State, Local, and Tribal Affairs is made responsible for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program and the Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center. 103(f))15

			U.S. Interdiction Coordinator

In 2002, Congress legislatively created the position of U.S. Interdiction Coordinator (USIC) within the Department of Homeland Security. ONDCP revised its method for compiling the national drug control budget summary in 2002. Current law (sec. Funding for Certain HIDTAs (Sec. National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (Sec. Drug-Free Communities Act Reauthorization (Secs. Report on Intelligence Sharing (Sec. South American Heroin Strategy (Sec. Study of Iatrogenic Addiction (Sec. 1111)

The reauthorization act requires the Director to submit to Congress, within 90 days of enactment, a report that includes a plan to conduct, on an expedited basis, a scientific study of the use of mycoherbicides as a means of illicit drug crop elimination. Awards for Coerced Abstinence Programs (Sec. This was reiterated in the Government Reform Committee report on H.R.
Located in the Executive Office of the President, the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is responsible for overseeing and coordinating the federal War on Drugs, preparing the National Drug Control Strategy, and running certain drug control programs, such as the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Program, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, and the Drug-Free Communities Program.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing on the nomination of Seattle police chief R. Gil Kerlikowske to be Director of National Drug Control Policy on April 1, 2008, at which the nominee promised "a renewed focus on evidence-based approaches to reduce demand for drugs, through prevention as well as treatment." The full Senate confirmed his nomination on May 7, 2009. A. Thomas McLellan, a drug treatment expert, has been nominated by President Obama to be Deputy Director of ONDCP, a post that also requires the advice and consent of the Senate.
The Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held an ONDCP oversight hearing on March 12, 2008. The ONDCP Director presented testimony on the 2008 National Drug Control Strategy and the 2009 National Drug Control Budget. Two private sector drug researchers offered criticisms of the continuing emphasis on supply reduction and law enforcement and urged increased funding for treatment programs directed at hardcore drug users. Oversight activities are expected to resume in the 111th Congress, and measures to reauthorize ONDCP will likely be introduced and considered.
ONDCP was created in 1988 and has now been reauthorized three times since then, most recently on December 29, 2006, when the Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006 (H.R. 6344) was signed into law (P.L. 109-469), reauthorizing ONDCP through FY2010.
The reauthorization act contains extensive amendments to current law. For example, it requires ONDCP's annual drug control budget to include all federal drug control activities, including demand reduction, supply reduction, and federally funded state, local, and tribal drug law enforcement. ONDCP revised its method for compiling the federal drug control budget in 2002, narrowing its scope. The act forces a return to more inclusive budget numbers for the federal drug control budget. It statutorily creates the position of U.S. Interdiction Coordinator (USIC) and the Interdiction Committee (TIC) within ONDCP. It contains numerous new reporting requirements, including South American and Afghan heroin strategies, a report on iatrogenic addiction caused by doctor-prescribed opioid analgesic pharmaceuticals, a national drug interdiction plan, a report on intelligence sharing within HIDTAs, and a study on the results of an awards program created by the act to fund demonstration programs on coerced abstinence. It allows the media campaign to focus on marijuana prevention. Mycoherbicides will be studied and tested on U.S. soil as a means of eliminating illicit drug crops.
This report will be updated in the event of further legislative and oversight activities in Congress relating to ONDCP and its leadership of the global War on Drugs.