
Eight senators in mid-December asked the Defense Department to not fund an environmental assessment related to active Minuteman III ICBM silos until after Congress completes fiscal year 2014 appropriations legislation. In a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and comptroller Robert Hale, the senators said the Pentagon initially requested funding for an environmental impact study on Minuteman III silos in its FY ’14 budget request. The joint explanatory statement for the compromise FY ’14 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed…