About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

B-285281 1 (2000-05-08)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabmcf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: tG A O__ _ _ _ __ United States General Accounting Office Office of the General Counsel Washington, DC 20548 B-285281 May 8, 2000 The Honorable Mac Thornberry Chairman, Special Oversight Panel on Department of Energy Reorganization Committee on Armed Services House of Representatives Subject: Applicability of Environmental Laws to National Nuclear Security Administration Dear Mr. Chairman: In your letter of April 28, 2000, you asked two questions regarding the applicability of federal, state, interstate, and local environmental, safety, and health requirements to the newly created National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Specifically, you asked whether the National Nuclear Security Administration Act' narrows the waivers of sovereign immunity contained in existing environmental, safety, and health laws that apply to the Department of Energy (DOE) and the NNSA. This has been a concern of the attorneys general of several states. Second, you asked whether a bill now before the Committee on Commerce (H.R. 4288) might, if enacted, be interpreted to expand the application of existing environmental, safety, and health laws as they will be applied to the NNSA. After reviewing the statute and applicable law, we believe that the NNSA Act clearly states that current law will apply to the NNSA exactly as it applied to the NNSA's functions when performed previously by DOE. The continuation of current law necessarily carries forward all waivers of sovereign immunity in existing law, making further clarification superfluous. We also believe that the proposed amendments in H.R. 4288 may have the inadvertent effect of expanding or confusing existing waivers of sovereign immunity. Our reasoning is explained below. 1 This is the popular name assigned to title XXXII of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000, Pub. L. No. 106-65, §§ 3201-99, 113 Stat. 512, 953-71 (1999). This opinion will use the terms NNSA Act or title XXXII interchangeably.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most