Committees Weigh In On HR 1778

[Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@igc.org>]

Though we now know that the Rules Committee decided NOT to allow Title III 
of the Defense Reform Act to go to the floor, the following article 
details other Republican Committee Chairs' objections to the 
environmental provisions in HR 1778.

Aimee Houghton
CAREER/PRO
_______________________

The following story ran in Environment and Energy MID-WEEK UPDATE this morning. 

 Rules panel mulls allowing new cleanup rules in DOD bill

 At press time, the House Rules Committee was still
 debating whether controversial language to reform
 cleanup requirements would be included in floor debate
 beginning today (Thursday) on the Department of Defense
 authorization bill (H.R. 1119). 

 The controversial language to revamp Superfund cleanup
 rules was introduced two weeks ago in H.R. 1778, which
 also contains provisions to reform DOD's acquisition
 process among other things. The bill has generated
 loads of criticism because of the far-reaching nature
 of its environmental cleanup reform goals, because of
 the pace at which it was whisked through the National
 Security Committee, and because of jurisdictional
 problems with the Commerce and Transportation and
 Infrastructure committees, which share primary
 authority for Superfund reform.

 Recognizing these problems, Rep. Floyd Spence (R-S.C.),
 chairman of the National Security Committee and author
 of the bill, said at a June 17 hearing, "In order to
 simplify the political landscape, let me state that it
 is my intention to separate the environmental
 provisions from the more traditional defense reform
 provisions in H.R. 1778, and to ask the Rules Committee
 to consider the environmental provisions as a separate
 amendment. Because these environmental provisions fall
 within the primary jurisdiction of the Commerce and
 Transportation committees, whether or not they are made
 in order is a matter that will have to be decided at
 the Leadership level in the Rules Committee. I also
 believe that separating out the environmental
 provisions will keep the obvious controversy that
 surround them from spilling over into the defense
 organizational and business practice reforms."

 However, a June 17 letter from Commerce Committee
 Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), transportation
 committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), and Reps. Mike
 Oxley (R-Ohio) and Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), who
 chair the two Superfund subcommittees, said to Rules
 Committee Chairman Gerald Solomon (R-N.Y.) that they
 would seek to block the Superfund reform provisions.
 The letter says, "We strongly object to the inclusion
 of such amendments to H.R. 1119 and request that the
 Rules Committee not protect or otherwise make in order
 such amendments to CERCLA during floor consideration of
 H.R. 1119... Consideration of significant CERCLA
 amendments on the floor at this time would both
 undermine this effort and deprive the relevant
 committees of jurisdiction with the opportunity to act
 on proposed changes to CERCLA."

 Supporters of the bill say the imperative behind the
 measure lies in the fact that while defense spending is
 being cut on many front, expenditures on environmental
 cleanup -- approximately $12 billion per year for
 Defense and Energy Department cleanups -- account for
 the fastest growing portion of the defense budget.
 These supporters further argue that the benefits for
 the amount spent are negligible given that cleanups are
 occurring at such a slow pace under the current
 Superfund program. Spence argued in support of his bill
 that it would provide "real reforms with the promise of
 real savings."

 However, the committee's ranking member, Rep. Ronald
 Dellums (D-Calif.), said at the hearing that he has
 received criticisms about the lack of stakeholder
 participation in developing the legislation and the
 little amount of time members had to review the
 legislation before it was acted on by the National
 Security Committee. At the hearing, witnesses from the
 Department of Defense to the Colorado attorney general
 expressed concern with what they say are far-reaching
 reforms to Superfund. Opponents of the bill include the
 Clinton administration, environmental groups, labor
 groups and state officials. 

 The bill would: require consideration of future land
 use in choosing a cleanup remedy; preserve the
 Department of Defense's exemptions from Clean Air Act
 standards for cases like live fire exercises and
 off-road training; and place the same cleanup standards
 on DOD's non-National Priorities List sites, which
 currently face higher standards, so that they are
 equivalent to those currently applied to the private
 sector and to other federal agencies. -- Colleen Schu