Re: MCCAIN EXPLAINS HIS PROPOSAL

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

McCAIN's LETTER TO PERRY

 January 23, 1995

Honorable William Perry
Secretary of Defense
The Pentagon
Washington, DC 20300

Dear Mr. Secretary:

 As you know, I wrote to the President on December 
5, 1994, asking that he defer the obligation of funding for 
certain defense programs, including the environmental 
accounts of the Departments of Defense and Energy. I 
would like to clarify my intent in including $930 million 
in DOD and DOE environmental accounts in the list of 
programs characterized as lower priority funding.

 First, let me assure you that I understand the 
importance of environmental cleanup and fully support 
the need to provide adequate funding to accomplish this 
daunting task. Therefore, I believe it is incumbent upon 
the Department of Defense to bear its fair share of the 
burden of remediating any problems resulting from the 
conduct of necessary military activities. However, I also 
feel strongly that costs such as research and education, as 
well as other costs not directly related to actual cleanup 
activities, should be borne equally by all entities, whether 
governmental or private, rather than one or two federal 
agencies.

 It is in this context that I suggested that a portion of 
the DOD and DOE budgets for environmental programs be 
reviewed and reconsidered in the context of more fairly 
and appropriately allocating the fiscal burden of federal 
environmental programming across all government 
agencies.

 You and I are both aware of the growing scarcity of 
defense dollars to carry out our national security 
priorities. Therefore, we must work together now to 
ensure that we put the immediate needs of our common 
defense as our first priority.

 As Chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee of the 
Armed Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over 
the environmental restoration program of the Department 
of Defense, I intend to look into these issues very closely 
during the FY 1996 budget review. I would like to request 
your assistance in identifying specific areas of the 
Department's environmental restoration accounts which 
you believe should be distributed outside of the 
department. In this review, I would ask that you look 
closely at research and education funding, as well as the 
standards and remediation techniques to ensure that 
cleanup funding is being used efficiently and in the most 
cost-effective way to protect human health.

 As always, I appreciate your assistance in this 
matter. I will be sending a copy of this letter to the 
Secretary of Energy.

 Sincerely,

 John McCain
 United States Senator