[CPEO-MEF] National Security Impact review

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Below we are posting a November 1, 2001 letter from Sen. Carl Levin
(D-Michigan) to the White House about a House-proposed amendment to the
pending Defense Authorization Act. This provision would replace the
version actually passed by the House.

The earlier version would have required that Defense Department actions
be subject to National Security Impact Statements under the National
Environmental Policy Act. Apparently, when staff at the Defense
Department recognized that such Statements, as proposed, would be more
cumbersome for the military than for its environmental critics, it
developed an alternative proposal. As the Levin letter suggests, the
Administration never signed off on the proposal. Still, members of the
House Armed Services Committee have put it forward as part of the
Conference process.

Instead of subjecting Defense actions to new scrutiny, the substitute
language would allow Defense to "identify those classes of actions of
Federal agencies other than the Department of Defense that it is
reasonably foreseeable may have an adverse impact on national defense."
The Defense Department would then prepare a National Defense Impact
Statement analyzing those impacts and recommending "means to eliminate
or [reduce]/[mitigate] those adverse impacts." The other agency would be
required, as part of its decision-making process for the proposed
action, to respond to each Defense Department recommendation. In short,
the mission of the Defense Department would permanently be elevated,
giving it extraordinary powers to challenge environmental and other
rule-makings and other actions initiated by other agencies.

Lenny

***

United States Senate
Committee on Armed Services
Washington, DC 20510

November 1, 2001

The Honorable Mitch Daniels
Director, Office of Management and Budget
Old Executive Office Building
Washington, DC 20503

Dear Mr. Daniels:

The Armed Services Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives
are currently engaged in a conference on the National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002. In the course of this
conference, we have received a  piece of draft legislation from the
House conferees. This proposal would establish a new process under which
Federal agencies other than the Department of Defense would be required
to identify proposed actions that may have an adverse impact on national
defense and consult with the Secretary of Defense before finalizing the
proposed actions.

That is an extraordinarily broad and cumbersome requirement in my
judgment, but the point of this letter is to get the Administration's
reaction to the proposal, since I understand that this draft has not
been reviewed by either the Department of Defense of the Administration.
Accordingly, I would appreciate if you would provide the conferees with
the Administration's views on the proposed legislation. Because the
proposal would appear to affect regulations, formal opinions,
enforcement actions, permits and other actions of a broad array of
federal agencies outside the Department of Defense, I would appreciate
if you would consider the views of those agencies in responding to this request.

Your prompt response is urgently requested.

Sincerely,

Carl Levin
Chairman

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
lsiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org

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