March 7, 2013, 11:00 AM ET – Building on Past Experience: Making the Case for DEA

This presentation highlights the history of the challenges DEA overcame as it made the case for a stand-alone agency for drug law enforcement. Four times in our history, serious proposals were made to have DEA merged into the FBI. Retired DEA Assistant Administrator David Westrate will lead the discussion with a group of former DEA Administrators, including Peter Bensinger, Francis "Bud" Mullen and Robert Bonner; retired DEA executive staff, including retired Deputy Administrator Steve Greene; and former and current DEA employees who were involved in those efforts in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000, and who will recall how the case for DEA was made each time, and what lessons still apply today.