The impact of overall planning and budget guidance is not necessarily traceable to specific installations or sites. For fiscal year 1995, Congress appropriated $400 million less than DOD requested for cleanup at operational installations and formerly used defense sites and rescinded another $300 million from the amount that had been appropriated. For fiscal year 1996, Congress appropriated $200 million less than DOD requested. Fiscal Year 1995 Allocation

Environmental Security’s November 1994 guidance to the defense components emphasized cleanup of sites that are the highest priority to stakeholders (those having interest in cleanup activities, such as the community surrounding the installation) and regulators’ considerations included by (1) involving stakeholders in decision-making, (2) taking interim remedial actions (early response action that is identified and implemented at any time during the study or design phases of cleanup) instead of continuing studies, (3) giving priority to higher relative risk sites, (4) deferring studies that are not essential for safety or compliance with agreements, (5) reviewing expense data, (6) considering innovative technologies and generic remedies, and (7) funding field locations according to their fair share. Reported Cleanup Schedule Delays Due to Funding

DOD’s annual reports to Congress for fiscal years 1995 and 1996 show that an increasing number of installations reported that their cleanup schedules were affected by fund limits. Installations with the largest budget increases and decreases reported schedule delays with about equal frequency, and not all of the installations with the largest decreases reported schedule delays due to funding. Funding at Installations Visited

Although DOD developed information on the effect of receiving less funding than it requested, the actual changes were often different than envisioned. Conclusions

DOD uses its planning, programming, and budgeting process for making funding decisions, and DOD components ultimately make site-specific decisions. When DOD received less funds than requested or rescissions occurred, Environmental Security provided written or oral guidance for DOD components’ actions. Cleanup schedule delays occurred at installations when the funding received was more or less than planned. Scope and Methodology

To describe the Department of Defense’s (DOD) process for allocating funds, we reviewed DOD’s April 1994 management guidance that addressed how DOD handles funding responsibilities for the defense restoration program, and a March 1998 update to this guidance. Corps districts allocate funds for site cleanup and oversee action. Additional copies are $2 each.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on: (1) the Department of Defense's (DOD) process for allocating approved environmental cleanup budgets when funds received are less than requested or budget rescissions occur; and (2) reported cleanup schedule delays due to lack of funding.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) DOD develops and allocates approved budgets through its departmentwide planning, programming, and budget process; (2) the components used DOD guidance to establish priorities and distribute funds to the various installations, but the impact of that guidance is not necessarily traceable to specific installations or sites; (3) during fiscal years (FY) 1993 to 1997, Congress took three actions that significantly affected funding for DOD cleanup activities; (4) in FY 1995, Congress appropriated $400 million less than DOD requested and then rescinded an additional $300 million of the amount appropriated; (5) Congress appropriated $200 million less than DOD had requested for FY 1996; (6) in each case, DOD components adjusted funding priorities in light of the congressional actions and DOD guidance; (7) while specific guidance varied, both written and verbal guidance encouraged priority for sites of high risk and discouraged cleanup studies that were not essential; (8) data contained in DOD's annual reports to Congress and in DOD components' records do not show a direct relationship between installations receiving less or more funding than planned and those reporting cleanup schedule delays due to funding; (9) for example, during FY 1995 and FY 1996, about half of the Army installations with the largest decreases in funding reported cleanup schedule delays--a frequency similar to Army installations with the largest increases in funding; (10) during this period, GAO also found that actual funding changes under the DOD process often varied from that initially envisioned because of such reasons as inherent uncertainty during cleanup planning; and (11) for example, DOD initially identified a potential decrease in funding for two sites at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, whereas the Army allocated a slight overall funding increase to that installation, which has 205 cleanup sites.