"Meth lab clean-up is a public safety issue. Meth manufacturers often leave behind a toxic, noxious trail. And the exponential increase in the number of meth labs has understandably exhausted the resources that were provided for clean-up this year. Now it's very important that we move quickly to replenish the federal dollars that go to support this effort in states like Iowa, where the number of labs seized has jumped from 63 in 1997, to 808 last year," Grassley said. In 1999, the federal government provided money to help clean-up 296 of these labs in Iowa.
Grassley made his case for a prompt response in a letter to President Bill Clinton and in offering a Sense of the Senate resolution calling for $10 million in unused federal law enforcement funds to be redirected to the Drug Enforcement Agency to assist with meth lab clean-up.
It can take between $3,000 and $100,000 just to ensure a single lab is dismantled in an environmentally-sound manner. A pound of meth produces five to six pounds of toxic, flammable and corrosive waste. Clean-up costs, which often fall on small towns and rural areas, can quickly overwhelm local resources.
Grassley, along with Sen. Tim Hutchinson of Arkansas, supported the recommendation of Attorney General Janet Reno that money leftover from the COPS program be reprogrammed for the meth lab clean-up effort. Reno made her recommendation in March. Earlier this week, the White House Office of Management and Budget rejected Reno's recommendation.
"Since the President objected to this request, he needs to present a viable alternative right away. Otherwise, he should have immediately approved the attorney general's recommendation. Local law enforcement agencies and state governments have bills piling up. They can't afford to have the administration continue stalling on this urgent matter," Grassley said. In the last month alone, Iowa has accumulated over $83,000 in outstanding bills from cleaning up meth labs.
The resolution introduced by Hutchinson and Grassley is non-binding, but it would express the will of the U.S. Senate that the administration immediately direct $10 million in unused federal funds for meth lab clean-up.
The DEA exhausted the $8 million set aside for assisting state and local agencies with clean-up efforts in February. In addition to pushing for the $10 million needed to bridge the funding shortfall this year, Grassley has urged appropriators to provide adequate funding for the DEA fiscal 2001 budget for meth lab clean-up assistance.