HNSC CUTS DERA

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMITTEE MARK-UP

For fiscal year 1996, the Defense Department requested $1,622 
million for the Defense Enviromental Restoration Account (for 
cleanup at active and former bases) as well as $457 million for 
closing bases (Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC ) cleanup. I 
have not obtained any official statements yet, but it appears that the 
House National Security Committee is recommending that $200 
million be cut from DERA, bringing the FY1996 authorization down 
to $1,420 million.

The full House is expected to take up the Defense Authorization bill 
in mid-June, and Senate Authorization should follow in July or 
August, along with Appropriations in both houses. In the past few 
years, the Appropriations committees have consistently reduced the 
amounts from the Authorization acts.

As severe as the decline proposed by the House Committee is, it 
could have been worse. Some observers had predicted a cut as large 
as $1 billion from the President's request, but the Committee level is 
still below the minimum that the Environmental Security office 
considers essential.

The language that accompanies funding levels is equally significant. 
The House National Security Committee Readiness Subcommittee 
considered a provision that would have given the military unilateral 
authority to delay legally mandated cleanup activity. It withdrew that 
proposal only after the House Commerce Committee, which has 
jurisdiction over hazardous waste laws such as "Superfund," 
threatened to review the Defense bill.

Another provision, which survived the National Security Committee 
mark-up, reportedly places $200 million of DERA funds in a fund 
which can be drawn upon, without Congressional action, for national 
security contingencies. Depending on the final wording, this could 
be tantamount to another $200 million cut, effectively bringing 
DERA down to $1.22 billion.