[CPEO-MEF] Update on SERDP and ESTCP funding

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Last time I reported on funds for the Defense Department's innovative
environmental research and development programs, SERDP and ESTCP, the
House authorizers (Armed Services Committee) were cutting their budgets
and the Senate authorizers were boosting them slightly to deal with
ordnance cleanup issues.

In the Defense Appropriations bills, however, the two houses of Congress
have switched roles. And the Appropriations figures are usually more
influential in determining actual expenditures. The House Defense
Appropriations bill retains the amounts proposed by the President: About
$60 million for SERDP and $28 million for ESTCP. However, with no
substantive explanation, the Senate Appropriations bill has sliced $11
million from SERDP and $7 million from ESTCP. The differences will be
resolved in conference committee immediately after the August
Congressional recess.

SERDP is the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program,
and ESTCP is the Environmental Security Technology Certification
Program. The two programs work closely together, with ESTCP funding more
research and demonstrations that are somewhat more applied than SERDP's.

Cuts in these two programs would delay the development of perchlorate
remediation technologies, innovative approaches to the characterization
and remediation of munitions and explosives, and pollution prevention
projects designed to reduce the use of heavy metals in weapons systems,
as well as conservation studies important in overcoming the challenge of
"encroachment" on training and other readiness activities.

LS
-- 


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: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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