USA Patriot Terriorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005--Conference Report

USA PATRIOT TERRORISM PREVENTION REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2005--CONFERENCE REPORT

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am pleased that this conference agreement includes important provisions which will provide critical new tools and resources to help combat methamphetamine--one of the deadliest, most powerfully addictive, and rapidly spreading drug threats facing our country. Fighting meth requires a comprehensive approach designed to assist States, local law enforcement and prosecutors to crack down on cooks and traffickers of meth while bolstering community education and awareness and expanding treatment options for those addicted to this dangerous drug. As a cosponsor of the underlying Combat Meth Act that was incorporated in this conference agreement, I believe our action today is long overdue.

In my home State of Illinois, the meth scourge, especially in rural areas, is egregious. Like many States, Illinois faces the daunting challenge of trying to stay one step ahead of those who will go to any length to procure the ingredients to make their drugs.

Just a year ago, a law took effect in Illinois which required placing adult-strength cold tablets containing ephedrine or as their only active ingredient behind store counters. The law also limited to two packages per transaction the purchase of adult-strength cold tablets containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine as the sole active ingredient and tablets with ephedrine or pseudoephedrine in combination with other active ingredients. Additionally, the law required education and training for retail sales personnel. At that time, the Illinois law was among the toughest in the Nation and the strongest law among our border States.

However, after that date, several States passed laws more restrictive than the Illinois law, and reports from law enforcement authorities indicated that meth makers from Missouri, Iowa, Kentucky and nearby States were coming to Illinois to purchase products. Incidents such as these led to enactment in November 2005 of the Methamphetamine Precursor Control Act to impose stricter controls on the display and sale of cold and sinus products containing meth's key ingredient pseudoephedrine. The Attorney General of Illinois, Lisa Madigan, has instituted and operates an aggressive anti-meth program in partnership with law enforcement agencies and multi-country drug task forces.

The facts and figures about the devastating impact of meth in Illinois underscore why our actions today to advance tough new provisions and funding authorization are so vital.

The number of meth labs seized by law enforcement authorities in Illinois grew from 24 labs in 1997, to 403 labs in 2000, to 1,099 labs in 2003. Illinois State Police reported 962 lab seizures in 2004 and nearly 1000 meth labs in 2005, more than double the number uncovered in 2000. Since 1997, the quantity of methamphetamines seized annually by the ISP has increased over tenfold.

The number of methamphetamine submissions to the Illinois State Police crime laboratories increased from 628 in 1998 to 3,250 in 2003--more than a five-fold increase. The number of counties submitting meth also increased during that period, from 73 in 1998 to 96 in 2003. In 2004, Byrne grants helped Illinois cops make almost 1,267 meth-related arrests and seize approximately 348,923 grams of methamphetamines. Local police departments depend on Byrne grant funding to participate in meth task forces which tackle the meth problem by coordinating the enforcement and interdiction efforts of local agencies within regional areas. In fact, over 65 percent of Illinois's Byrne funding in 2004 went to local law enforcement agencies.

The Southern Illinois Enforcement Group pays almost half of its agents with funding from Byrne grants. In 2004, this regional task force was responsible for more than 27 percent of the State's meth lab seizures. In a recent success of Byrne grant funding, Glen Carbon Police coordinated with the Illinois State Police Meth Task Force to discover the largest lab in the village's history. In this incident, local authorities raided a meth lab that proved to be capable of producing up to 6,000 grams of finished methamphetamine. Given examples such as this, it is baffling that this administration seeks to eliminate these critical funds in its budget proposal.

Methamphetamine is the only drug for which rural areas in Illinois have higher rates of drug seizures and treatment admissions than urban areas. Meth use, and the number of people behind bars for possessing, making or selling it, has grown rapidly over the past decade in Illinois. Just 5 years ago, 79 inmates entered State prisons on meth offenses. Last year, that number was 541. In fiscal year 2003, rural counties accounted for the vast majority, 79 percent, of persons sentenced to prison for meth-related offenses. The number of treatment admissions relating to methamphetamine abuse in Illinois jumped from 97 in 1994 to 3,582 in 2003.

Another disturbing implication is the effect on families. In 2004, more than half of the children entering foster care in some areas of rural southeastern Illinois were forced into the program because their caretakers were meth abusers. Officials expect to encounter even more children in homes where meth labs exist in coming years.

When specific regions were examined, findings indicate that rural counties have experienced the greatest impact of methamphetamine. Rural counties have been greatly impacted by the presence and growth of methamphetamine, and are responsible for driving the escalating levels of methamphetamine arrests, drug seizures and submissions, clandestine lab seizures, methamphetamine commitments to Illinois Department of Corrections and methamphetamine treatment admissions.

Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority statistics show that in 2003, the per capita occurrence of clandestine meth labs in rural counties was over 1700 percent greater than it is in non-rural areas. The per capita presence of meth in rural areas in over 500 percent greater than it is in non-rural areas; more than 73 percent of meth labs found in the State of Illinois were found in rural counties. Of 366 felony arrests in Edgar County, IL, 145 were for methamphetamine.

But urban areas are not immune to the meth crisis. The perception that meth labs are a rural issue ended when a major meth lab was discovered in a Chicago apartment building last September. The challenge we face is overwhelming and our actions today signal a commitment to support a concerted effort to tackle this urgent criminal justice and public health and safety challenge.

I commend the tireless and tenacious leadership of Senators TALENT and FEINSTEIN who have labored long and hard to secure passage of a strong Combat Meth Act. I look forward to working with them to ensure that full funding is provided to implement these new tools and provide the needed resources to localities grappling with this drug crisis.

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