By Paul Shepard
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, March 8, 2000; 6:34 p.m. EST
WASHINGTON –– The House Appropriations Committee is challenging the Department of Housing and Urban Development's use of money designated for fighting drugs to instead fund a federal gun buyback championed by President Clinton.
"This isn't about the efficacy of the program; it is a question of whether HUD has the legal authority for it," Elizabeth Morra, an Appropriations Committee spokeswoman, said Wednesday.
Morra said the challenge to HUD's authority on the gun buyback is based on a decision from a similar conclusion reached by congressional auditors this week.
Money for the purchases, averaging about $50 a gun, now flows through HUD's Drug Elimination Program.
"Nowhere in the grant does it authorize using the funding for a gun buyback program," Morra said. "HUD would have to prove that the gun buyback will directly eliminate drugs and they haven't provided us any proof of that."
The Appropriations Committee, as part of an $9 billion emergency appropriations bill, plans to vote Thursday on rescinding the $700,000 that HUD has earmarked for the buyback program this year, Morra said.
Housing authorities in 80 cities have signed up for the gun buyback program, HUD spokesman David Egner said, but only Louisville, Ky., has begun buying back guns under the federal program. Egner said 179 guns were purchased Tuesday.
"Its unfortunate that some members of Congress want to stop public housing authorities and police departments from carrying out local programs to by back guns, reduce violence and save lives," Egner said.
President Clinton announced last September what was billed as the nation's largest gun buyback program with the goal of removing 300,000 weapons.
The District of Columbia bought 2,306 guns during an experimental two-day offer in August. That no-questions-asked program took in guns from across the city, not only from neighborhoods near housing projects.
As with the Washington program, the national buyback offer would not include amnesty for any crimes committed with the guns. District of Columbia police are now running ballistics tests on the purchased guns in trying match them with crimes or suspected criminals.