DELLUMS' RETIREMENT TO LEAVE VOID

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

DELLUMS' RETIREMENT TO LEAVE VOID

Congressman Ron Dellums (D-Berkeley), the ranking Democrat on the House
National Security Committee, recently announced his mid-term
resignation. Effective February, 1998, not only Dellums, but most of his
key National Security Committee staffers, will be gone. Their departure
will leave an enormous void on Capitol Hill. Dellums has been a
principled, but effective leader on many national security issues,
including environmental remediation and base conversion.

For the future of the environmental programs at both the Defense
Department and the Energy Department's nuclear weapons complex, it is
essential that the new Democratic leaders of the National Security
Committee recognize the significance of those programs and hire at least
one staff member with environmental expertise and experience to take
responsibility for oversight of those programs.

It's possible that the committee Democrats, to be led by Ike Skelton
(D-Missouri) already realize this. Many have significant defense cleanup
or other national security-related environmental problems back home. But
I wouldn't leave it to chance.

If there's a Democratic member of the House National Security Committee
from your area, I suggest you contact his or her office and simply ask
that the oversight of Defense and Energy environmental programs not slip
through the cracks as the Committee reorganizes.

We will be posting a current list of National Security Committee
Democrats as a follow-up to this message.

Lenny Siegel
Director, SFSU CAREER/PRO (and Pacific Studies Center)
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@igc.org