Editorial: Beef up security at DOE sites

Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2002 | 9:06 a.m.

In March the Energy Department asked the White House not once, but twice, for $379 million in emergency security funding for its installations, many of which house nuclear weapons, nuclear waste or other dangerous materials. Each time, however, the Bush administration turned down the requests, even though the Energy Department's chief financial officer privately had warned that the department's current security budget was insufficient in light of possible terrorist threats. Congress tried to do the right thing in July when it disregarded the White House's decision and went ahead and appropriated $360 million for security at Energy Department installations as part of the overall $5.1 billion emergency spending bill. But a week ago President Bush rejected the entire emergency spending bill, a terrible decision in light of concerns about the dangerous world we live in following Sept. 11.

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who opposes Bush's decision, believes that security at Energy Department facilities hasn't been given the kind of attention it deserves, a situation that he says stretches back to the Clinton administration and the first President Bush. According to Markey, between 1992 and 2001 the Energy Department reduced its security forces from 7,091 employees to 4,262. Close to home, security personnel at the Nevada Test Site was cut from 276 to 113. Sure, overall operations at the Nevada Test Site were scaled back significantly following the nuclear testing ban in early 1990s, but that doesn't mean that there still isn't a need for a strong force. And now that the federal government plans on sending tons of bomb-grade plutonium to the Test Site from the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory, where Energy Department officials believe the facilit y is more vulnerable to a terrorist attack, it's even more important that security be upgraded at the Test Site.

When Congress returns from its summer recess, Markey wants to provide $300 million for security at Energy Department facilities by tacking the money onto a water and energy appropriations bill, a move we support. We hope that this time reason will prevail upon the administration to endorse the measure.