The Honorable John Warner
Chairman
Senate Aimed Services Committee

The Honorable Carl Lcvin
Ranking Member
Senate Armed Services Committee

The Honorable Duncan Hunter
Chairman
House Armed Services Committee

The Honorable Ike Skelton
Ranking Member
House Aimed Services Committee

Dear Mr. Chairmen and Ranking Members:

As you begin your work on the Conference Report to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, we urge you to retain and include an important Senate-passed provision that will better protect citizens and the environment near chemical weapons stockpile and demilitarization sites in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Oregon, and Utah. This Sense of the Senate provision urges the Secretary of the Army to deploy programs to update the chemical agent monitoring systems at each of the eight stockpile sites in the nation.

Specifically, this provision reaffirms the Sense of the Senate that the current "inefficient and outdated" chemical agent monitoring and alarm systems to identify chemical leaks need to be replaced with "newer and advanced" technologies to better protect citizens, personnel at these sites, and the environment near these storage sites. According to research and a report by the National Research Council, these newer systems could reduce the current response time of twenty minutes, to less than ten seconds. This dramatic reduction in detection time is crucial for better protection of the people and environment around these sites during a possible emergency situation where some deadly agents could be released.

The Assistant Secretary of the Army, Mr. Claude Bolton, with oversight over the storage and disposal of these stockpile munitions is supportive of this provision. Also, the national citizens Chemical Weapons Working Group endorses this provision. We strongly encourage you to retain and include this important provision in your conference bill. Attached is the Sense of the Senate on this issue which passed the Senate during consideration of your authorization bill. We look forward to working with you, the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the Secretary of the Army to implement these important safety upgrades to better protect our constituents in the communities surrounding these stockpile sites.

Sincerely,

Jim Bunning Mitch McConnell

C.H. Smith Ron Wyden

Evan Bayh Blance L. Lincoln

Wayne T. Gilchrist Scott McInnis

Greg Walden C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger