Pubdate: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 Source: Casper Star-Tribune (WY) Copyright: 2003 Casper Star-Tribune Contact: http://www.trib.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/765 Author: AP POWELL POLICE CHIEF PLEASED GRANT FUNDING CONTINUED POWELL, Wyo. (AP) - Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., was surprised, and Powell Police Chief Tim Feathers was pleased with a late hour add-on to the omnibus federal budget bill. Funding for the Byrne Grant was continued, after Enzi was told money for the program was cut out of the bill. Feathers said the appropriation means the war on drugs can continue in Powell and northwest Wyoming for the next year with funds supporting undercover work by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation's Northwest Drug Enforcement Team. Powell provides a police officer to the DCI team with salary paid by the Byrne Grant program. Feathers was in Washington, D.C., at an anti-drug conference last week and he dropped by Enzi's office Thursday afternoon to check on the Byrne Grant money. Enzi told him it didn't look good. The $650 million for the program had been stripped out of the budget bill in the U.S. Senate, with both Enzi and Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., voting to keep the funding. Enzi said the delegation sent letters to the appropriations committee requesting funding at the 2002 level. The conference committee between the Senate and House was still working on the final Conference Report Thursday. Enzi put his aides to work searching the 1,000-page omnibus bill, and that's when they discovered the Byrne funding was still alive. ''Sometimes it happens,'' Enzi said. ''The conference committee can move money around to get a deal.'' Late Thursday night, both Houses of Congress approved the final Conference Report, and now the $397.4 billion budget bill goes to the White House to be signed. Feathers said he is happy to keep the work of the Northwest Drug Enforcement Team going. It provides effective resources that would not otherwise be available to small communities, the chief said. ''Since the Northwest Enforcement Team began, prosecutions of drug cases have gone up and property crimes have gone down,'' he said. ''Remove that effective presence, and we could be back to a flourishing drug trade.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Josh