One of DOD’s goals is to prepare its combat units for wartime operations by providing units with the most realistic training possible. DOD operates and maintains hundreds of training ranges located throughout the country. Its combat units use training areas located in a wide variety of climates and include the full scale of training terrains, such as ocean areas, desert and mountainous regions, and jungle-like environments, which provide DOD combat units the opportunity to train in environments they will most likely operate in once deployed for wartime operations. These training areas also encompass critical habitat and are home to a variety of endangered species. Like other federal, state, local, and private facilities, DOD installations are generally required to comply with environmental and other laws that are intended to protect human health and the environment from harm. However, several environmental statutes include a national security exemption that DOD may invoke to ensure the requirements of those statutes would not restrict military training needs that are in the paramount interest of the United States. These exemptions require a case- by-case determination by an authorized decision maker and provide authority for suspending compliance requirements for actions at federal facilities, including military installations. To date, DOD has received or invoked exemptions under the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, and RCRA. Although seldom made, DOD’s requests for exemption have been approved in every case. Table 1 presents the environmental statutes that authorize case-by-case exemptions and the approval standards. In 2002, DOD submitted to Congress an eight-provision legislative package, referred to as the Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative, proposing revisions to six environmental statutes on the basis of DOD’s concerns that restrictions in these statutes could limit realistic preparations for combat and negatively affect military readiness. DOD also requested two additional provisions that would allow DOD to cooperate more effectively with third parties on land transfers for conservation purposes. To date, Congress has enacted five of the Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative provisions. The fiscal year 2003 defense authorization act directed the Secretary of the Interior to prescribe regulations for issuing permits for the “incidental takings” of migratory birds during military training exercises authorized by the Secretary of Defense and provided an interim exemption from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act’s prohibition against taking, killing, or possessing any migratory birds except as permitted by regulation, until the implementation of new regulations. DOD had been concerned about the effects of a court decision holding that certain military readiness activities resulting in migratory bird takings violated the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Interior department regulations published in February 2007 allow for the Armed Forces to take migratory birds incidental to military readiness activities, provided that for those activities the Armed Forces determine may result in a significant, adverse effect on a population of migratory bird species, they must confer with the FWS to develop and implement appropriate conservation measures to minimize or mitigate those effects. The Secretary of the Interior retains the power to withdraw or suspend the authority for incidental takings of migratory birds for particular activities under certain circumstances. Two additional provisions enacted in the fiscal year 2003 defense authorization act authorized the Secretary of a military department to enter into an agreement with a state or local government or any private organization committed to the conservation, restoration, or preservation of land and natural resources to address encroachment issues and to convey any surplus real property under the Secretary’s administrative control that is suitable and desirable for conservation purposes to any state or local government or nonprofit organization committed to conservation of natural resources on real property. The fiscal year 2004 defense authorization act enacted two of the five remaining Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative provisions by authorizing DOD exemptions from the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. One of the revisions to the Endangered Species Act precluded the Secretary of the Interior from designating as critical habitat DOD lands that are subject to an approved integrated natural resources management plan, if the Secretary makes a written determination that such a plan provides a benefit to the species being designated. DOD, like other federal agencies, is still required to consult with the FWS and the National Marine Fisheries Service, as appropriate, to ensure that actions it performs, authorizes, funds, or permits are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of a listed species or adversely modify its critical habitat. In DOD’s view, this statutory revision was needed to avoid the potential of any future critical habitat designations that could restrict the use of military lands for training. The other revision to the Endangered Species Act requires the Secretary of the Interior to consider effects on national security when deciding whether to designate critical habitat, but does not remove DOD from being subject to all other protections provided under the act. The revision to the Marine Mammal Protection Act authorized the Secretary of Defense to exempt for a specific period, not to exceed 2 years, any action or category of actions undertaken by DOD or its components from compliance with the act’s prohibition against illegal takings of marine mammals, if the Secretary determines it is necessary for national defense. The revision also amended the definition of “harassment” of marine mammals, as it applies to military readiness activity, to require evidence of harm or a higher threshold of potential harm, and required the Secretary of the Interior to consider the impact on the effectiveness of the military readiness activity in the issuance of permits for incidental takings. In DOD’s view these amendments were needed to prevent restrictions on the use of the Navy’s sonar systems. Similar to previous years since fiscal year 2003, DOD included in its proposed National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 the three remaining Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative provisions which provide exemptions from certain requirements of the Clean Air Act, RCRA, and CERCLA. As with previous Congresses, the 110th Congress did not include these provisions in the version of the bill that went before both houses for final vote. Descriptions of the three remaining proposals follow: First, the proposed revision to the Clean Air Act would have deferred emissions generated by military readiness activities from conforming to applicable state clean air implementation plans for achieving federal air quality standards and allowed DOD up to 3 years to satisfy these requirements. To be in conformity, a federal action must not contribute to new violations of the standards for ambient air quality, increase the frequency or severity of existing violations, or delay timely attainment of standards in the area of concern. DOD proposed this revision to provide flexibility for transferring training operations to areas with poor air quality without restrictions on these operations due to generated emissions. In addition, the revision would have required EPA to approve a state plan even if emissions from military readiness activities would prevent a given area within the state from achieving clean air standards. Second, DOD’s proposed revision to RCRA would have amended the definition of “solid waste” to exclude munitions that are on an operational range incident to their normal use, thereby excluding such munitions from regulation under RCRA. RCRA governs, among other things, the management of hazardous wastes, including establishing standards for treatment, storage, and disposal facilities. Third, the proposed revision to CERCLA, under which entities responsible for releases of hazardous substances are liable for associated cleanup costs, would have similarly amended the definition of “release.” CERCLA defines release as any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles containing any hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant). DOD’s view is that the proposed revisions to RCRA and CERCLA would clarify existing regulations EPA finalized in its 1997 Military Munitions Rule, pursuant to which “used” or “fired” munitions on a range are considered solid waste, subject to disposal requirements, only when they are removed from their landing spot. DOD sought this revision to eliminate the possibility of legal challenges to the rule, which might have resulted in an active range being closed to require the removal of accumulating munitions and cleanup of related contamination, thus restricting training. To the extent that encroachment adversely affects training readiness, opportunities exist for the problems to be reported in departmental and military service readiness reports. DOD defines readiness as the ability of U.S. military forces to fight and meet the demands of the national military strategy. Readiness is the synthesis of two distinct but interrelated levels: unit readiness (the ability of each unit to provide capabilities required by the combatant commanders to execute their assigned missions) and joint readiness (the combatant commander’s ability to integrate and synchronize ready combat and support forces to execute his or her assigned missions). DOD has stated that the goal of any readiness reporting or assessment system is to reveal whether forces can perform their assigned missions. Historically, DOD has inferred this ability from the status of unit resources via the Global Status of Resources and Training System. This system is the primary means for units to report readiness against designed operational goals. The system’s database indicates, at selected points in time, the extent to which units possess the required resources and training to undertake their wartime missions. DOD found, however, that these input- based assessments do not yield direct information on whether a force can actually perform an assigned mission despite potential resource shortfalls. In the spring of 2002, DOD announced plans to create a new Defense Readiness Reporting System that would provide commanders with a comprehensive assessment of the ability of capable entities to conduct operations without the command having to research and examine numerous databases throughout DOD, such as the Global Status of Resources and Training System and the service-specific readiness reporting systems. According to DOD, this new system is expected to be able to seamlessly integrate readiness data with planning and execution tools, providing a powerful means for rapidly assessing, planning, and executing operations.