alienation news

Rumsfeld out to unshackle the military

The United States Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is pushing a series of sweeping proposals that will weaken congressional supervision of the Pentagon and give the military more freedom to manage itself.
The Pentagon has proposed eliminating requirements for filing hundreds of reports on its activities to Congress every year. It also plans to ban strikes by contract workers, axe rules protecting civilian workers at the Pentagon and to bypass environmentalists in Congress.
Some plans have been more provocative. They include allowing the Pentagon to send its initiatives directly to Capitol Hill before other agencies can review them.
Once there, the legislation would require Congress to vote quickly, with only limited debate.