WASHINGTON, D.C.

MCCONNELL VOWS TO FIGHT MOVING OF WMDS

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell pledged yesterday that transporting of chemical weapons such as those at Blue Grass Army Depot in Madison County "will not happen so long as I am a U.S. senator." McConnell, R-Ky., U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., and U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, announced they were co-sponsoring legislation in both houses of Congress that would prohibit the shipment of such weapons from any Army installation.

Preliminary budget documents show the Pentagon plans to severely cut funding for the program under which the depot's 523 tons of nerve and blister agent would be chemically neutralized. It also said it wanted to study shipping the weapons out of state.