[CPEO-MEF] Section 1041 "Defense Impact Review"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

As our readers may recall, last year House Armed Services Committee
Republicans proposed Defense Authorization Act (FY2002) language to
require military impact reviews of Defense Department actions as part of
the National Environmental Policy Act process. When they realized that
would undermine their objectives, they put forward a Defense Department
proposal to subject the actions of other federal agencies to defense
impact reviews. The Democratic leadership of the Senate Armed Service
Committee blocked that approach, and instead in Section 1041 of the
legislation Congress directed the Secretary of Defense to submit
recommendations on such reviews. 

The Defense Department is taking that directive seriously. In his March
14, 2002 testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Deputy
Undersecretary of Defense Raymond F. Dubois, Jr., reported: "we will be
suggesting to the President a variety of means to ensure that in the
future military readiness is given appropriate consideration during the
regulatory and administrative processes managed by other agencies."

Lenny
-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/96I-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org