[CPEO-MEF] Alert - Call Senators!

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

[The following is posted at the request of Steve Taylor.  --Aimee]

Hello all:
 
The struggle over the DoD's proposals for more exemptions from 
environmental and public health laws is moving into the Senate.
 
Tomorrow evening the Readiness and Management Support subcommittee of 
the Senate Armed Services Committee will mark up the 2003 Defense 
Authorization bill.  The Senate version of the bill currently contains 
all of DoD's proposed exemptions for all training and readiness 
activities, very broadly defined.  The laws affected would be:

Clean Air Act 
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act 
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act 
Endangered Species Act 
Marine Mammal Protection Act 
Migratory Bird Treaty Act

Senators - especially those on the Armed Services Committee - need to 
hear from interested parties on this issue.  Please make it a point to 
call members of the Senate Armed Services Committee today or tomorrow to 
express your opinions on this issue.
 
The case against these exemptions may be briefly summarized as:

No government agency should be above the laws that individuals and 
business must follow.  In a recent poll, 85% of registered voters agreed 
that federal agencies including the Department of Defense should be held 
to the same environmental and public health laws as everyone else. 

The exemptions are unnecessary.  Most of these laws already contain 
case-by-case waivers to protect national security, and the President 
always has the authority to resolve conflicts between agencies that 
affect training and readiness. 

The exemptions were introduced at the 11th hour, just a few days before 
markups of the bill in the House.  Communities, states, and public 
interest organizations were denied the opportunity to testify on these 
proposals.  Other committees of jurisdiction in the House have not 
considered the legislation. 

The exemptions respond to a handful of situations with sweeping 
across-the-board exemptions. 
 
The exemptions would irreparably harm public health and the environment.

Background documents include:

Dear Colleague letter from over 100 members of the U.S. House at 
http://www.cpeo.org/pubs/DOD%20dear%20colleague%205-1-02.pdf 
Letter from environmental and public interest organizations at 
http://www.cpeo.org/pubs/Letter%20to%20house1.doc 
Letter from Colorado Attorney General at 
http://www.cpeo.org/pubs/salazar%204-01-02%20letter.doc

The members of the Committee are as follows:
 
 DEMOCRATS 

Carl Levin (Michigan)
Chairman 

Edward M. Kennedy (Massachusetts)
Robert C. Byrd (West Virginia)
Joseph I. Lieberman (Connecticut)
Max Cleland (Georgia)
Mary L. Landrieu (Louisiana)
Jack Reed (Rhode Island)
Daniel K. Akaka (Hawaii)
Bill Nelson (Florida)
E. Benjamin Nelson (Nebraska)
Jean Carnahan (Missouri)
Mark Dayton (Minnesota)
Jeff Bingaman (New Mexico)

REPUBLICANS 
 
John Warner, Ranking Member (Virginia) 
Strom Thurmond (South Carolina)
John McCain (Arizona)
Bob Smith (New Hampshire)
James M. Inhofe (Oklahoma)
Rick Santorum (Pennsylvania)
Pat Roberts (Kansas)
Wayne Allard (Colorado)
Tim Hutchinson (Arkansas)
Jeff Sessions (Alabama)
Susan M. Collins (Maine)
Jim Bunning (Kentucky)
 
You can find Congressional phone numbers at 
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
 
Steve Taylor
Military Toxics Project

 

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