[iwar] [fc:Livermore.lab.plan:.$1.billion.misprint.-.Bush.budget.would.take.the.money,.but.leave.the.staff]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-06-12 06:04:05

Next message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Bennett.Predicts.Cyber.Terrorism]"
Previous message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Internet.sites.reveal.Al.Qaida.strategy.shift:.New.focus.is.support.for.Palestinians]"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]

Message-Id: <200206121304.g5CD45H30573@red.all.net>
To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List)
Organization: I'm not allowed to say
From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com
Precedence: bulk
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 06:04:05 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Livermore.lab.plan:.$1.billion.misprint.-.Bush.budget.would.take.the.money,.but.leave.the.staff]
Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Livermore lab plan: $1 billion misprint - Bush budget would take the money, but leave the staff 
Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief
Tuesday, June 11, 2002 
Š2002 San Francisco Chronicle. 

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/06/11/MN170910.DTL 

Washington -- In an arrangement that still has top officials at the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scratching their heads, President
Bush plans to send 80 percent of the lab's budget to his new Department
of Homeland Security and as few as 4 percent of its employees. 

Nearly a week after Bush proposed the most comprehensive reform of the
federal bureaucracy in half a century, it was evident that not all the
details had been worked out -- or fully understood by senior White House
aides. 

Tom Ridge, the president's director of homeland security, said that,
contrary to the suggestion of a report issued by the White House last
week, the overwhelming majority of the lab's 7,500 employees would not
be transferred to the proposed Cabinet department, and the lab's
long-standing relationship with the Department of Energy would remain
largely intact. 

However, neither Ridge nor other White House aides could explain why the
plan's fine print calls for the new department to employ just a fraction
of the lab's workers while consuming $1.2 billion of its $1.5 billion
budget. 

"I cannot give you the kind of explanation you need to deal with that
imbalance," Ridge said Monday in response to The Chronicle's queries. 
He raised the possibility that the discrepancy could be the result of a
billion- dollar misprint. 

"I just have to give you a better dollar amount," Ridge said.  "The
bigger issue to be framed here is for you to understand that we are not
going to take over the traditional relationship they (the Department of
Energy) had with Lawrence Livermore."

Ridge said only employees who work specifically on countermeasures to
protect Americans against nuclear, biological or chemical weapons -- a
small fraction of the lab's work -- would be affected. 

"Historically, and at least for now and for the future, the Department
of Energy is going to control and work with Lawrence Livermore as it
relates to nuclear weapons systems," Ridge said. 

The sprawling lab in southeastern Alameda County is operated by the
University of California under a contract with the Department of Energy. 

Bush's plan to reorganize the federal bureaucracy, announced in a
nationally televised address last week, calls for the wholesale transfer
of entire agencies -- including the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and the Federal Emergency
Management Agency -- into a new Cabinet department charged primarily
with protecting Americans against terrorist attacks. 

The 24-page plan also says the department "would incorporate and focus
the intellectual energy and extensive capacity of several important
scientific institutions, including Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory."

A chart contained in the plan shows $1.2 billion and 324 workers from
the lab being added to the new department, which is estimated to have a
workforce of 169,000 and a $37 billion budget. 

Ridge, talking about the Coast Guard, FEMA and other federal agencies,
said "it is important to transfer the departments in whole." But in the
case of the labs, where almost all the employees work for UC and not the
federal government, he said only a tiny fraction should be a part of the
new Cabinet department. 

A White House aide clarified Monday night that the figure of 324 workers
mentioned in the plan referred only to the number of federal employees
at the lab, and that it is possible many more might be added to the new
agency and not count toward the total number of federal employees. 

No one at the lab could confirm the number of federal employees,
although two sources thought the number was probably closer to half that
amount. 

Lab officials, who said they were not consulted on the reorganization
plan, have not received any official notice from Washington. 

"We're still waiting for specifics and details," lab spokeswoman Lynda
Seaver said. 

Several Bush administration critics suggested that the confusion was
symptomatic of a plan put together hastily and in secret. 

"This is what happens when you have secrecy in legislative drafting,"
said Democratic Rep.  Ellen Tauscher, whose East Bay District includes
the lab. 

Tauscher is the co-sponsor of an alternative plan to create a Cabinet
department to counter terrorism, which would not move lab employees but
would tap into their expertise. 

E-mail Marc Sandalow at <a href="mailto:msandalow@sfchronicle.com?Subject=Re:%20(ai)%20Lawrence%20Livermore%20Lab%20On%20The%20Chopping%20Block?%2526In-Reply-To=%2526lt;379A8DC2FD20134CBC091ED3E135B0F34FFCF5@RMTVA-XVC01.info.trw.com">msandalow@sfchronicle.com</a> 

Š2002 San Francisco Chronicle.   Page A - 1 

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Will You Find True Love?
Will You Meet the One?
Free Love Reading by phone!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Deo18C/zDLEAA/Ey.GAA/kgFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

------------------
http://all.net/ 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Next message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Bennett.Predicts.Cyber.Terrorism]"
Previous message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Internet.sites.reveal.Al.Qaida.strategy.shift:.New.focus.is.support.for.Palestinians]"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2003-08-24 02:46:32 PDT