[CPEO-MEF] HEALTH: Ft. McClellan (AR) notification issue

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Pentagon puts budget concerns ahead of Fort McClellan troops’ welfare

Top Obama appointee says cost to notify soldiers of possible exposure to toxins too high

By Alex Swoyer 
Washington Times  
January 11, 2015

Putting budget concerns ahead of troop welfare, a top Obama administration appointee declared to Congress that the Pentagon doesn't want to spend the money to alert hundreds of thousands of soldiers who served at a once-contaminated Army base that they may have been exposed to toxins.

"The cost of attempting to identify all these individuals, including the cost of media advertising, would be a significant burden on the Army's budget and at a time when the Army is furloughing personnel due to a shortage of funds," Elizabeth King, the Pentagon's top liaison to Congress, wrote in an internal email to a House staffer in 2013.

The email, obtained and authenticated by The Washington Times, was written in response to unsuccessful efforts by Rep. Paul Tonko, New York Democrat, to get legislation passed in the last Congress that would require notification to veterans who were stationed at Fort McClellan, in Anniston, Alabama, before it was closed for widespread contamination 15 years ago.

…

For the entire story, see
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/11/pentagon-puts-budget-concerns-ahead-of-fort-mcclel/

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street
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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