WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1992. DRUG INTERDICTION AND COUNTER-DRUG ACTIVITIES, DEFENSE WITNESS HON. STEPHEN M. DUNCAN, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE COORDINATOR FOR DRUG ENFORCEMENT POLICY AND SUPPORT INTRODUCTION Mr. MURTHA. The Committee will come to order. Our hearing today will address the Drug Interdiction and Counter-Drug Activities, Defense appropriation. The request for fiscal year 1993 is $1,263,400,000, which is basically the same level of funding as this fiscal year. Testifying this afternoon is the Honorable Stephen M. Duncan, Coordinator of Drug Enforcement Policy and Support. Secretary Duncan, we welcome you. Your prepared statement will be made part of the record. Would you please summarize it at this time. SUMMARY STATEMENT OF MR. DUNCAN Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As usual, in an attempt to anticipate your areas of interest, I made my written statement very comprehensive. I won't begin to attempt to summarize it. I would like to make a couple of observations and then let's get to the questions. On the way here, I was reflecting about how far the Department has come on the counter-drug mission in the 3 and one-half years since the Congress gave the DOD three new major counter-drug missions. It is useful for us to reflect on what has happened during that 31⁄2 years. We have a new President and a new administration. We engaged in Operation Just Cause. There has been a dramatic and historic change in the worldwide strategic situation. The Warsaw Pact is gone, the Soviet Union is gone, and the Cold War is over. We have engaged in the Operation Desert Storm. There have been major changes in the Department's budget. Despite all that, and despite a mission which, under the best of circumstances could only be described as a unique and complex mission for the DOD in which the armed forces have to operate under restrictions of law and policy which they don't have to operate under when they are fighting Saddam Hussein, despite all of that, with this Committee's energetic help in those three years, the armed forces have come a long way in finding out how to perform the counter-drug missions, how to provide support to law enforcement agencies, and how to do it better each year. If one goes by the standard of customer satisfaction and talks to the law enforcement agencies at the Federal, (267) State or local level, we, from our standpoint, hear substantial praise about how we are doing it and what we are doing. We always hear that they would like to have more and more resources but I am not receiving any criticism of significance from any direction. We have to continue to recognize that we don't have all of the answers in the Department. We have to recognize that the way we did business two years ago may be substantially different than the way we will have to do it two years from now as the needs change. I think our counter-drug programs, if not already there, are rapidly approaching a state of maturity. We know how to do our business in a way that we didn't know three years ago when we were starting and wondering what it means to be the "lead Federal agency" for detection and monitoring and how we should go about letting the law enforcement agencies know that we are here to help and how we should help them ask for the help they need. I think the armed forces have already had a major impact. The challenge for people like me, as I see it, is to help the American people understand that you can't send the armed forces in on this one and win the conflict in a 100-hour ground war as we did in Iraq. It will require patience, require us to continually improve the way we do business. We accept that challenge and with your help, we will continue to do just that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [The statement of Mr. Duncan follows:] STATEMENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE COORDINATOR FOR DRUG ENFORCEMENT POLICY AND SUPPORT HONORABLE STEPHEN M. DUNCAN HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON DEFENSE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY APRIL 1, 1992 Stephen M. Duncan was nominated by President Reagan to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs on August 7.1987. and was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 23.198. He was reappointed to that office by President Bush on June 26, 1989. As Assistant Secretary. Mr. Duncan serves as the principal staff assistant and advisor to the Secretary of Defense on all matters involving the Reserve components of the U.S. Armed Forces, including the Army National Guard. Air National Guard. Army Reserve. Air Force Reserve, Naval Reserve. Marine Corps Reserve, and Coast Guard Reserve. For his service as Assistant Secretary, he has received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. Mr. Duncan also serves separately as the Department of Defense Coordinator for Drug Enforcemer: Policy and Support. In that capacity, he acts as the principal assistant and advisor to the Secretary of Defense for all policies and programs of the Department of Defense which implement the President's National Drug Control Strategy and the counterdrug missions assigned to the Armed Forces by law. Assistant Secretar, Duncan was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on March 28.1941. He graduated from the U.S. He served as a deck and watch officer aboard U.S.S. ESTES (AGC-12). an amphibious flagship which directed amphibious landing near Chu Lai. Vietnam in the spring of 1965. He subsequently served as the Weapons Officer aboard U.S.S CARRONADE IFS-1, the flagship of a division of four rocket ships which provided close-in gunfire support to ground forces in Vietnam. His combat decorations include the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat "V. the Combat Action Ribbon. the Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry (Bronze Star). the Navy Unit Commendation and various other unit citations and campaign medals related to his service in Vietnam. In 1967. Mr. Duncan was appointed Assistant Professor of Naval Science at Dartmouth College, where he taught Naval Engineering and Naval Histor. He transferred to the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1969. At the time of his first appointment in 1987. he held the rank of Captain. US Naval Reserve. He is a recipient of the Armed Forces Reserve Medal. Mr. Duncan served as Assistant US Attorney for the Federal District of Colorado in 1972-73. From 1973 to 198 he was engaged in the private practice of law in Denver. Colorado, most recently as a partner in the Denver firm of Hopper. Kanout:. Smith. Peryam. Terry and Duncar.. His practice was concentrated in the trial and appeal of complex commercial disputes in both federal and state court. He is a member of the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court. the State of Colorado. the US Court of Military Appeals and other federal courts. He is member of the faculty of the Trial Advocacy Institute at the University of Virginia School of Law. and in 1982 he was elected a Fellow of the International Society of Barristers. He has published articles in various professional journals and has served as an elected member of the Board of Governors of the Colorado Bar Association and the Board of Trustees of the Denver Bar Association Assistant Secretary Duncan is married to the former Luelia Rinehart of Santa Monica, California. They have two: daughters. Kelly is a 1990 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and is serving on active duty with the Navy Paige Is a college studen 1 Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: In September 1989, the President announced his first National Drug Control Strategy. The same month, the Secretary of Much I am Defense designated the detection and countering of the production, trafficking, and use of illegal drugs as a "high priority national security mission of the Department of Defense." has happened during the succeeding two and one half years. honored to once again have the opportunity to discuss the policies which have been established and the actions that have been taken by the Department of Defense to implement the President's Strategy and to comply with the counterdrug responsibilities which have been assigned to the Department by law. The counterdrug mission of the Department of Defense is difficult. Our counterdrug policies, programs, and activities are very complex. They have been designed to attack a very unconventional enemy. In order to perform this mission, the Department of Defense must engage daily in a complicated interagency process involving governmental entities with which the DOD does not normally deal. The Armed Forces must operate within strict limitations of law and policy that do not inhibit the performance of more traditional military missions. The very nature of the fight against drug trafficking prevents it from being won cheaply or quickly. The Department of Defense has little ability to limit the casualties in the conflict and significant numbers of casualties may be found in neighborhoods and institutions all over the country. Because Americans are |