[CPEO-MEF] Current Status of Defense Legislation

[Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@cpeo.org>]

In a letter dated August 7th and addressed to Senator Warner, Secretary 
Cohen asks that Section 342 of the Senate Defense Authorization bill be 
excluded.  He states that it "would undermine key DoD environmental aims."

Section 342 is the language promoted by Senator Stevens that would exclude 
DOD from certain environmental fines and penalties imposed by EPA.

In the same letter Secretary Cohen also addresses section 312.  "In the 
House bill I urge the exclusion of the following: section 312 could 
undermine public confidence in DoD's compliance with environmental law and 
erode public support for low-level flight training.  Futhermore, this 
section is unnecessary because there is no current or proposed low-level 
flight training program that requires a nationwide programmatic National 
Environmental Policy Act analysis, and it undermines the longstanding 
government-wide position that programmatic analysis for similar but 
unconnected activities are not required because a legislative exemption 
could be argued to imply that such a requirement would otherwise exist."

Administrator Browner, in a letter dated August 17th and addressed to 
Representative Spence, strongly opposes section 342.  The letter states:

"EPA believes that Section 342 of the bill would undermine our existing 
enforcement authority.  This provision will reverse longstanding Federal 
policy to treat Federal agencies like all other regulated entities for 
purposes of enforcement.  This policy, strongly supported by states, has 
been embraced by previous Administrations, Congress, and the public."

Aimee




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aimee R. Houghton
CPEO, Associate Director
122 C Street NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC  20001-2109
tel: 202-662-18888; fax: 202-628-1825
Email: aimeeh@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org

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