Re: REPUBLICAN BUDGET PROPOSAL

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

MORE DETAILS ON WARNER-MCCAIN CUTS

 In their call to shift non-essential Defense spending into readiness
accounts, Republican Senate Armed Services Committee leaders John
McCain and John Warner listed $772.1 million in specific fiscal year 1995
appropriations that they want eliminated in addition to the $7 billion in
programs they want terminated. While it is difficult to determine the exact
nature of each item from the Senators' listing, I have extracted items that
appear related to environmental activity or base closures.

 In a December 5 letter to President Clinton, the two Senators not
only asked him to drop the $8 billion in programs and projects from the
FY96 Defense budget. They want him to defer obligation in the current
fiscal year, FY95.

$5.8 million National Center for Toxicological Research, Jefferson,
Arkansas
$2.0 million Remediation efforts at Alaska Roundhouse Site at
Cordova, Alaska
$2.0 million National Training Center, George Air Force Base
$1.0 million Hamilton Air Force Base cleanup
$1.5 million Wild horse roundup, White Sands Missile Range, New
Mexico
$1.0 million Fort Bliss, Texas, ordnance cleanup
$2.0 million Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, Asbestos Cleanup
$2.334 million Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Presto Industries cleanup

$10.0 million Presidio of San Francisco, infrastructure improvements
$6.0 million Charleston Naval Complex
$1.0 million Derektor Shipyard, Newport Rhode Island, environmental
activities
$8.0 million Camp Pendleton (California) underground storage tanks
$3.85 million Camp Pendleton (California) environmental compliance
$0.734 million Upgrade storage tanks at Scott Air Force Base
$2.5 million Establish Land Management Training center
$1.4 million Fort Bragg, North Carolina water quality compliance
project
$10.0 million Electric vehicles
$1.0 million Research on ocean acoustics at National Center for
Physical Acoustics, provided as a grant to the Mississippi Resource
Development Corporation
$12 million Seismic research at Incorporated Research Institutions for
Seismology
$15 million Transfer to Department of Energy for "Center for
Bioenvironmental Research"
$5 million Jefferson Proving Ground (Indiana), unexploded ordnance
$1.0 million Saltsburg Remediation Technology
$3 million Requiring continued operation of Plattsburgh Air Force
Base hospital in New York
$50 million Kaho'olawe Island land conveyance and environmental
remediation
$71.955 million 26 specific defense conversion projects at
specified locations and institutions which "the [Appropriations] conferees
suggest that the Department of Defense consider funding"
$2.0 million Environmental cleanup at sale parcel at Hamilton Air Force
Base, Novato, California
$8.0 million Environmental remediation activities on Indian lands
ordered by Administration for Native Americans
$5.0 million Transfer to Resettlement Trust Fund managed by Interior
Department for nuclear test damage to Rongelap Atoll

 Some of these programs might be unnecessary, but the Senators'
overall objectives are clear. The $7 billion in proposed program cuts
includes elimination of the $1.5 billion allocated for Defense conversion and
$930 million to cutting Defense and Energy Department environmental
programs. The Senators commented: "Reduce over-emphasis on
environmental cleanup and reduce funding to account for management
savings, use of more effective technologies, and less stringent standards.