Administration Opportunistically Seeks Exemptions for the Department of Defense

WASHINGTON – There's a growing gap between rhetoric and reality in the Department of Defense's fight to avoid its responsibilities under some of our basic environmental laws. Anecdotes are flying thick and heavy about soldiers, sailors and pilots who can't train due to some obscure, usually funny-sounding animal who happens to live in the wrong place. Fortunately for our troops, for people living near military facilities, and for those funny-sounding animals, this red-hot rhetoric always seems to evaporate in the glare of reality.

In its proposal for the FY 2004 Defense Authorization bill, the Administration requested broad exemptions from provisions of the Clean Air Act, the Superfund Law, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Last year, they asked for exemptions from these same laws, and Congress said no. Congress got it right. These laws have kept our children and communities safe from hazardous waste and from pollutants in our air and have protected rare and sensitive creatures. No federal agency should be above the law, especially the laws that protect public health and safeguard imperiled and vulnerable species. Federal agencies should have to follow the same laws as everyone else.

Nor do our environmental laws harm our national security. The Pentagon already can get case-by-case exemptions from these laws in the interests of national security. For the most part, the military hasn't even bothered to ask the president for these exemptions.

The Bush administration wants you to think this exemption is necessary to assure the safety of our troops – something we all agree is paramount. But a June 2002 report by the GAO concluded as others have, that the exemptions now available already accomplish that. There is simply no need to sacrifice the health of our families, our communities and our wildlife to effectively train our troops. Indeed those are some of the things they fight to defend.

The importance of protecting our environment is a basic American value. Despite the rhetorical smokescreen the administration is attempting to create, there is no need to sacrifice our values in order to defend our nation. We can protect our environment and protect America at the same time.

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