As part of an omnibus appropriations bill, House and Senate conferees agreed to fund the voucher program -- previously rejected by House lawmakers -- and add $36 million to the $1.753 billion federal addiction block grant, the nation's single largest source of addiction-related funding.

"In a year where we had tight funding levels, you would be hard-pressed to find another block grant with a $35-million increase," said Jenny Collier, director of national policy and state strategy for the Legal Action Center. "It shows the level of persuasion the administration and the field were about to use with the Congress."

Collier credited President Bush for making the voucher plan a budget priority by touting it in his State of the Union speech and in official visits to treatment programs across the country. Despite fears that a conservative Congress and administration might turn away from demand-reduction strategies, Collier said that treatment and prevention have become nonpartisan issues. "Lawmakers see this as a problem that affects their communities, regardless of their political positions," she said.

The Access to Recovery treatment-voucher plan is one of the biggest nonmilitary new programs in the FY2004 budget. While the addiction field embraced President Bush's call for a $600-million investment in treatment, many have been wary about the types of programs that would be funded, particularly given the administration's affection for faith-based interventions. But lawmakers stressed that voucher money should only go to programs with a proven record of effectiveness.

"The conferees expect that the new voucher program will support evidence-based practice and will provide medically appropriate treatment for individuals needing care," the House-Senate conference report said. "To this end, the conferees expect that states and providers receiving funds under this program will use assessment and placement criteria developed by national experts, such as the American Society of Addiction Medicine."

"The conferees support the administration's goal of opening new pathways to treatment," the report added. "At the same time, however, the conferees direct that all providers participating in the Access to Recovery program should be held accountable to the same standards of care, performance, licensure, and certification requirements as other licensed or certified drug and alcohol programs in their respective states."

Collier said the report language should not preclude faith-based programs from receiving vouchers. "I think a lot of faith-based programs are already certified or licensed in the states; Teen Challenge is, for example," she said. "There really are old and well-established links between faith-based programs and the treatment and prevention community, and hopefully this program will help to further those."

President Bush originally requested $200 million for the voucher program in FY2004; Congress approved half that amount.

Other Increases: NIDA Nears $1 Billion

Beyond the voucher program and the block grant, the budget news remains mostly good for the prevention and treatment community. Congress continued its strong support for the National Institutes on Health in general and addiction-related research in particular, giving increases of $35 million and $15 million, respectively, to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). With the increase, NIDA stands on the brink of being a billion-dollar agency, with its 2004 budget set at $997 million. If the spending plan is approved, NIAAA's budget next year would be $431 million.

The Department of Education's Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities program was trimmed by $24 million, to $445 million; however, Ed's youth-mentoring initiative received a $33-million increase, from $17 million to $50 million.

The Drug-Free Communities Act, a major funding vehicle for community anti-drug coalitions, was boosted $10 million to a total 2004 budget of $70 million. And the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention received an increase of $3 million, a modest improvement but far better than the $50-million cut proposed by the Bush administration.

"For the most part, the field did unbelievably well," said Sue Thau, legislative representative for Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America. "The field has really come together on appropriations [advocacy]."

Republican leaders in the House and Senate have rolled multiple appropriations bills into one huge, omnibus spending plan for 2004, including the aforementioned programs for addiction treatment and recovery. Prospects for the measure's passage are uncertain. Democrats remain opposed to provisions such as a school-voucher program for the District of Columbia, and GOP leaders have decreed that no amendments will be allowed on the bill.

Republicans leaders are betting that the Democrats won't risk shutting down the government by thwarting the measure. But Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) promised to block the bill from coming to a vote in the Senate, meaning the measure may not be voted on until January 2004.