Responding to a request from Congress, the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has restored funding to a handful of community coalitions who were defunded in last year's Drug Free Communities (DFC) grant process. But both legislators and coalition leaders say that the ONDCP grantmaking review -- like the 2005 DFC funding process -- was flawed and unfair.

"Congress asked [drug czar John] Walters to put together an appeals process; the intention was that coalitions that had lost funding could submit a rebuttal and that an outside group would review them," said Gen. Arthur Dean, president and CEO of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA). "[Walters] chose not to do that; instead, ONDCP did another internal review by the same people who made the first decision."

Last fall, 62 coalitions that had been funded under the DFC program and were eligible for continuation funding had their grants terminated in an ONDCP-run review process that CADCA said lacked due process. Responding to complaints from CADCA and coalition leaders, Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Mo.) and Joseph Biden (D-Del.) -- co-chairs of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotic Control and original sponsors of 1997's Drug Free Communities Act -- wrote to ONDCP Director Walters, saying that the agency's grantmaking review process appeared to be "not fair, impartial or in accordance with the Act," and requesting a "full and fair" review of the funding decisions.

In early March, Walters announced that seven of the 62 coalitions whose funding was yanked last fall would now receive grants for 2005. "ONDCP has prepared letters to the remaining 55 applicants detailing specifically why they did not meet the [grant] requirements and allowing them to respond to this decision by March 13," Walters wrote in a March 2 letter to Grassley and Biden.

Noting that the senators had "asked that ONDCP use an independent and unbiased appeals process," Walters stated: "I assure you that we have exceeded that standard in providing these failed applicants a fair and level playing field with the intention of funding as many qualified applicants as possible."

Those assurances fell flat in the eyes of Grassley and Biden, however, who expressed "continued frustration and sincerest concern for the way this situation has been handled" in a March 22 response to Walters.

"Your decision not to provide a fair and transparent appeals process to the 62 coalitions that were, by all indications, unfairly defunded is deeply troubling and only furthers speculation that the process was flawed," Grassley and Biden wrote. "As you know, our repeated requests for an appeals process specifically called for independent third-party involvement. Instead, you ignored our calls for transparency and conducted an internal re-review of the applications."

Grassley and Biden presented a list of questions to Walters about the DFC funding process and requested a response by next week.