Washington - President Bush's plan for streamlining the war on drugs could spell the end of a western anti-drug task force based in Denver.

Police officials say the group's departure could hamper drug-fighting efforts in the region.

Bush has proposed cutting the budget for "High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area" programs by 56 percent, from $227 million this year to $100 million next year. The administration also wants to move them from the office of the White House "drug czar" to the Justice Department.

The Rocky Mountain program, which serves Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Montana from an office in the Denver Tech Center, likely wouldn't survive such a budget cut, said Tom Gorman, the local program's executive director. The Rocky Mountain program has a staff of 20 and a $9.2 million annual budget.

"You'd have to prioritize, and you'd prioritize the New Yorks and Chicagos," said Gorman, who is also president of the National HIDTA Directors Association. "We'd be somewhere in the middle."

Nationally, there are 28 such programs, which work with local and state law enforcement agencies to coordinate anti-drug efforts in their region.

The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area programs identify illegal drug threats, fund anti-drug task forces, provide analysts and intelligence, and train state and local officers.

The Rocky Mountain program helped take down the Mario Oregon-Cortez drug trafficking organization in 2002. Serving as the Denver hub of a Tijuana drug cartel, the organization reportedly brought in 500 kilos of cocaine monthly from Tijuana to Denver. Task forces supported by HIDTA indicted and arrested 21 people.

In 2004, the Rocky Mountain program's initiatives resulted in more than 6,000 felony arrests, along with the seizure of nearly 1,600 pounds of cocaine and nearly 300 pounds of methamphetamine, according to its annual report.

Local and state law officials say that what's just as important as the arrest and drug-seizure numbers is the cooperation that the program fosters among local and federal agencies.

"There has never been a program that has come close to what HIDTA has accomplished in building relationships and collaborative efforts at all levels within the Rocky Mountain Region. HIDTA has built the infrastructure of communication and cooperation with local, state, and federal resources," said Mesa County (Colo.) Sheriff Sheriff Stan Hilkey. "Any plan to erode that infrastructure could be devastating."

But the Bush administration says the millions of dollars budgeted for the program over the years hasn't been well spent, and that Congress has come to view it as a law enforcement "revenue-sharing" program.

"HIDTA has not been able to demonstrate results," said John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the administration's drug czar.

Drug-czar officials say they want to steer the program toward fighting national-level drug trafficking rather than state and local crime.

But Congress is resisting. Even Bush's fellow Republicans in Congress are angry about the budget-cut idea. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called the White House's plans "stupid."

"It's no secret that I'm very disappointed in our current drug czar's recommendation," Hatch said at a recent briefing. "I don't know what kind of pique got into him."

The taxpayer group Citizens Against Government Waste, known for its annual "Pig Book" identifying pork spending, says the program is simply pork with a badge.

In a policy paper issued in May, Citizens Against Government Waste said the drug program began as a way to focus resources on borders and ports, but soon grew into a way for influential lawmakers to funnel money to their districts.

"The program has become a drug prevention funding free- for-all for power-hungry politicians to bring home the bacon to their districts," wrote the taxpayer group's Angela French, "and has decreased drug enforcement in areas where it is critically needed."