PRESIDENT'S VETO OF JUSTICE BILL RE DRUG CZAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85M00363R000801900010-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 4, 2007
• Sequence Number: 10
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2007/09/04: CIA-RDP85M00363R000801900010-7
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 Approved For Release 2007/09/04: CIA-RDP85M00363R000801900010-7
President's Veto of Justice Bill re Drug Czar
The President recently vetoed Enrolled Bill H.R. 3963,
the Violent Crime and Drug Enforcement Improvements Act.
Section 305 of that Bill was a provision, amending federal
criminal statutes, that would have made it a federal crime
to perpetrate acts of violence directed at US intelligence
personnel engaged in the performance of their official duties.
The Presidential veto was dictated, inter alia, by the fact
that the Bill also contained a provision--sponsored by
Senator Joe Biden of Delaware--which would have created
an Office of Director of National and International Drug
Operations and Policy, to be headed by a "drug czar",
having broad yet ambiguously defined authorities. It was
this provision and not the intelligence provision that the
President found, with full support of the Attorney General,
particularly.onerous. Your 11 January 1983 letter to
David Stockman (attached) expressed support for Section 305
of the Bill but deferred final judgment to the Department of
Justice and other law enforcement agencies as to whether other
provisions in the Bill dictated veto.
Approved For Release 2007/09/04: CIA-RDP85M00363R000801900010-7