Where is the End of Pentagon’s Power?

Last July 15, LA Times reported that U.S. the Department of Defense is under fire for the plan which it is pushing for in order to free itself from intervention of the Congress and strengthen its own power.

Recently, Defense Ministry came up with “plan for more rationalized defense” and then withheld after the plan caused a lot of controversies due to its somewhat unconstitutional nature.

Under the plan, when the Pentagon presents bills relating defense administrating, personnel, weapons’ exports, and maintaining logistics, it could directly transfer them to military-related committee without intervention from other committees. The plan also included limit on unnecessary discussions and shortened deliberation time.

In response, the Congress is expressing displeasure. Democratic party’s John Splat in the House Budget Committee said, “ More defense budget naturally entails more deliberations.”

Furthermore, the Congress is wondering about hidden intention of Defense Ministry. The newspaper quoted a congress member as saying, “Such a plan seems to harbor the political intention of president Bush to change the dynamics between the Congress and the Administration.

Cindy Williams, former assistant director for national security in the Congressional Budget Official, said, “ It is nothing new that Bush administration has closed attitude on information sharing. It should be noted that even within the administration, they stick to secrecy principle.”

Shean Okiff in NASA said, “Defense minister, Rumsfeld is just a figurehead of the plan, and both president Bush and vice president Dick Cheney have special interest in the issue. A high official in Pentagon admitted by saying, “ This is just a part of a series of plans for ‘strengthened defense ministry’.

According to the newspaper, recently Defense Ministry successfully reduced the number of necessary reports it should submit which amounts to 340 annually by 20 through lobbying the Congress.

It is no secret that the ministry has struggled to free from environmental organizations’ influence. Defense Ministry is lobbying many organizations including the Congress for being exempted from environmental legislations including the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Preservation Act and Migratory Bird Conservation Act.

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