[CPEO-MEF] House Approves Increasing Defense Dept. Waivers of Environmental Rule

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

NEW YORK TIMES
House Approves Increasing Defense Dept. Waivers of Environmental Rules
By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, May 21 — The House voted today to give the Pentagon broad
discretion to waive laws meant to protect rare animal and plant species
if the restrictions are judged to interfere with military training and
readiness. And the Senate approved a more limited exemption.

As the two chambers considered similar $400 billion Pentagon spending
measures, they took different views of the push by Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld for authorization to bypass the Endangered Species
Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act, ensuring that the conflict will
have to be resolved in negotiations over the final bill.

House members voted, 252 to 175, to allow the Pentagon to override the
environmental laws.

Representative Duncan Hunter, the California Republican who is chairman
of the House Armed Services Committee, said that the laws were making it
increasingly difficult for the military to find training grounds and
that long stretches of 17 miles of beach at Camp Pendleton, Calif.,
could not be used for Marine landing exercises because of lawsuits, the
presence of an endangered gnatcatcher and protected vegetation.

"Those training grounds are becoming more and more constricted and more
off limits to our troops," Mr. Hunter said.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/22/politics/22DEFE.html?ex=1054180800&en=71041005213e0d6d&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

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