FY99 DOD ENVIRO BUDGET RELEASED

[Daromir Rudnyckyj <rudy@igc.org>]

The President announced a $257.3 billion budget for the Department of
Defense last week. Of the total, DOD requested $4.4 billion to fund its
environmental committments. This is $400 million less than the $4.8 billion
requested last year.

Of the $4.4 billion, DOD has requested $1.259 billion for environmental
restoration at active and formerly used defense sites (FUDS). This is down
slightly from last year's request of $1.264 billion and down 3% ($38
million) from the final congressional appropriation of $1.297 billion.

The total environmental remediation budget, the Defense environmental
restoration accounts, breaks down by service branch as follows (last year's
request in parentheses):
 FY99 request (FY98 request)
Army $377 million ($377 million)
Navy $282 million ($278 million)
Air Force $379 million ($379 million)
Defense Wide $ 26 million ($ 28 million)
FUDS $195 million ($202 million)
____________________________________________
TOTAL $1,259 million ($1,264 million)

Other environmental obligations in the FY99 budget request include: $664
million for environmental remediation at closing bases, $1.9 billion for
environmental compliance, $264 million for pollution prevention, $170
million for environmental technology, and $115 million for conservation.

Preliminary conversations with congressional staff indicate that the DOD
environmental budget is likely to survive its respective House and Senate
committees intact as many members are eager to finish spending bills in time
to return to their districts to campaign this election year.

Dar Rudnyckyj 
Program Associate
Global Green USA
1025 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005-6303
Ph: 202-879-3181 
Fx: 202-879-3182 
rudy@igc.org