HOUSE PANEL WANTS PENTAGON MANAGE U.S. STOCKPILE
The House Armed Services Committee
has voted for a transfer in the management of stockpiled
materials for national defense to the U.S. Defense Secretary.
    The committee also voted for legally-binding quantity and
quality requirements on the materials, mostly metals.
    The measures are a part of the Defense Authorization Bill
which will be voted on in the House next month.
    The purpose of the measures, passed by the committee
yesterday, is to improve stockpile management and discourage
sell-offs of materials that could jeopardize strategic needs, a
staff member of the committee told Reuters.
    "They (the stockpiles) stand to gain the most by being
managed properly," said the staffer. "Management of the stockpile
over the last 10 years has been atrocious."
    Responsibility for stockpile management now belongs to a
White House agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
    The staffer said that under the measures passed by the
committee the Secretary of Defense would have more influence
over decisions to keep or sell strategic stockpile materials.
    The administration has proposed a goal of 700 million dlrs
worth of strategic materials to be held in the stockpile. The
stockpile now contains around 10 billion dlrs of materials.
    He said several agencies currently helped FEMA to manage
the stockpile and decide how much to sell to help the deficit.
    These agencies included the Office of Management and Budget
and the Departments of Interior and Commerce, he said.
    The committee believed the shared involvement in stockpile
management was counter-productive, he said.
 Reuter
