Clinton Budget Request Disappointing

[gkripke@Essential.ORG]

Posting from Gawain Kripke <gkripke@Essential.ORG>
Subject: Clinton Budget Request Disappointing

To: Interested colleagues

Posting from Gawain Kripke, Friends of the Earth

RE: Clinton Budget Request for Defense Environmental Remediation Funding.

Today, the Administration released it FY1996 budget request to Congress. 
The President requests $1.6222 billion for the Defense Environmental
Restoration Account (DERA), the key environmental cleanup account. This
is significantly less than had been expected. 

FY94 FY95 FY96 (request)
$1.9623 $1.7802 $1.6222

In December, news reports revealed that the DOD Environmental Security 
Office had requested $2.0995 billion. The DOD comptroller recommended 
cutting this amount to $1.8694 billion.

As you can see, the final figure is a cut of nearly $150 million from 
last year's appropriation. The final figure is nearly $475 million 
from what the cleanup program's internal request.

The cleanup budget is significantly below what we had expected. It's a 
cut from last year (which already was $400 below the Administration's 
request). 

The ball is now in the Congress' court.

There are cuts in other DOD environmental programs, but I do not have 
details. I'll post them as I get them. 

Gawain Kripke Internet: gkripke@essential.org