Military unlikely to win environmental exemption

House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee Chairman Joel Hefley, R-Colo., said Wednesday he has no plans this year to try to move a package exempting the military from several major environmental laws.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, told reporters last week his committee also would not take up a plan offered by the Pentagon to exempt the military from portions of three environmental laws: the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act -- better known as the Superfund law -- and the Clean Air Act.

The House Armed Services and Energy and Commerce committees have been battling for jurisdiction over the military environmental-exemption issue.

A Barton spokeswoman said there is no conflict: "They have interest; we have jurisdiction." But Hefley maintains the two committees have joint jurisdiction.

Hefley also said the exemption plan floated by the Pentagon is too broad and should be more narrowly tailored, like plans offered in the previous two years that Congress did not pass.

Energy and Commerce ranking member John Dingell, D-Mich., has rejected any military exemptions and rebuffed the Pentagon's argument that environmental laws compromise military readiness.