"Health & Medical News"

The Bush administration’s proposed billion-dollar antidrug partnership with Mexico was met with harsh criticism in the House Foreign Relations Committee this week, the Los Angeles Times reported Nov. 15.

Panel member examining the $1.4-billion plan for the first time — U.S. and Mexican officials had largely hashed out the details of the so-called Merida Initiative behind closed doors — said that more money should be spend to “curb the appetite” for drugs and worried that Mexican corruption would bleed money away from the program.

Committee members also slammed the administration for failing to consult with Congress about the plan, with chairman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) saying, “This cavalier disregard of congressional concern is deeply disturbing.”

“The Congress is not just a bank for the president to come to us for money,” added committee member Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.). “This kind of foreign policy is what put the U.S. in the position it’s in worldwide. We’re not just here to be a rubber stamp.”

The administration attached the first $550 million in funding requests for the program to its supplemental funding measure to pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Republican members of the panel focused their concerns on Mexican corruption. “It’s very worrisome for me that we’re going to give them money and expect them to spend it correctly,” said Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.). Plans to spend some of the money on training for the Mexican military also were questioned, since many highly trained former Mexican Army soldiers are now working as enforcers and hit-men for the drug cartels.

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