House Zeroes SERDP

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

HOUSE ZEROES SERDP

The House National Security Committee (HNSC), in its mark-up of the
Defense Authorization bill for fiscal year 1999, has reportedly zeroed
out the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program
(SERDP)! Originally the pet project of former Senator Sam Nunn
(D-Georgia), SERDP has emerged as a key research and development program
supporting Pentagon environmental activity. The administration has
proposed a budget of $54.4 million for the upcoming fiscal year.

SERDP is actually a Defense Department partnership with U.S. EPA and the
Department of Energy. In fiscal year 1996, for example, it devoted 30%
of its funds to research on cleanup , 23% to pollution prevention, 16.5%
to compliance, 11% to conservation, and 8.5% to global environmental
change. It is the principal source, within the Department of Defense, of
basic research focused on unexploded ordnance (UXO) remediation!

SERDP may be a casualty of the Defense Reform Initiative, the same
report that led to the since-rescinded plan to move the TAPP program to
the Army. Under the Initiative, SERDP was moved from the Office of the
Secretary of Defense, where it resided since inception, to the Army.
Apparently, HNSC decided that the Army had too many environmental
research and development programs, and it erased the SERDP line item.

The Senate, however, intends to fund SERDP at the requested level, and
the final amount will be determined in the House-Senate Conference
Committee. UNLESS members of Congress hear that this small, but
successful program has a constituency, the conference committee will AT
BEST fund it at half the proposed level.

For more information about SERDP, see http://www.serdp.gov .

Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight (AKA SFSU
CAREER/PRO)
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org