[CTRL] U.S. House Panel Tries To Force Anti-Spying Reform

[Shane A. Saylor, Eccentric Bard]

 -Caveat Lector-

Thursday July 15 5:17 PM ET

U.S. House Panel Tries To Force Anti-Spying Reform
By Vicki Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives panel Thursday moved
to withhold $1 billion to force the Energy Department to overhaul its
counter-espionage programs after China's alleged theft of U.S. nuclear
secrets.

An Appropriations subcommittee agreed during a closed session to bar the
Energy Department from spending $1 billion of the roughly $4 billion it is
slated to use on nuclear weapons next fiscal year until its security
programs have been restructured or spun off to a separate agency.

Rep. Ron Packard, a California Republican who chairs the subcommittee,
accused the department of failing to protect weapon secrets ``through
chronic security and counter-intelligence problems,'' and said the money
should be blocked until reforms are made.

The nuclear weapons measure was part of a $20.2 billion bill to fund
programs at the Energy Department and Army Corps of Engineers in fiscal
2000, which starts Oct. 1.

The bill must go through the full committee and the House. The Senate in
June passed its version of the bill without the funding restriction.

Responding to reports of lax security at the Energy Department's nuclear
weapons laboratories and allegations China stole nuclear secrets over 20
years of espionage, Packard and some other Republicans want nuclear weapons
programs to be put under a separate agency.

Plans also circulated largely among Republicans to put weapons programs,
including the three nuclear weapons laboratories, under a semi-autonomous
agency within the Energy Department.

But other lawmakers urged a cautious approach to restructuring, with top
Republican and Democratic members of the House Commerce Committee and
Science Committee urging careful deliberations.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has said he would accept a semi-autonomous
operation within the agency, as long as the secretary keeps oversight of it.

Richardson expects compromise restructuring legislation to pass this year,
so ``this legislation will have no impact on DOE funding,'' his spokeswoman
said.

The Appropriations subcommittee in a statement after the closed meeting said
it also agreed to cut the department's nuclear weapons spending to $4
billion in fiscal 2000 from this year's $4.4 billion. That includes the $1
billion it would withhold.

The panel cut the department's overall nuclear defense spending -- including
cleanup of contaminated production sites and efforts to stem the spread of
nuclear weapons -- to $11.2 billion. That is down $1.2 billion from this
year and $1 billion below the White House request.

In another dig at the $18 billion Energy Department, which for years has
fended off efforts in Congress to abolish it altogether, the subcommittee
voted to slash spending for travel by contractors that carry out a number of
its operations.

After reports of excessive cost incurred by the agency's contractors, the
panel cut the travel allowance to $125 million next fiscal year from the
current $250 million.

--
"Those who want to hear the voice of pagan gods in wind or thunder, who
want to see the fairies dance in the moonlight, who can believe that
faith can move mountains, can follow the thread on the pages of this
book. It is a fragile thread; it cannot bear the weight of facts and
dates"
    -Kate Seredy, "The White Stag"
ICQ: 9815080   Operator Taliesin_2 of #SacredNemeton on IRC PaganPaths

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