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U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky asked the watchdog arm of Congress
yesterday to make sure the Department of Defense obeys a new law that governs
funding for chemical weapons destruction. The unusual move reflects the distrust the Republican senator has built
up in 20 years of battles with the Pentagon over how to destroy the 523 tons
of nerve and mustard agent at Blue Grass Army Depot at Richmond.
Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokes-man, said the Defense Department would
have no comment on what it considers "a matter between the senator and the
Government Accountability Office."
Several weeks ago, McConnell added a provision to the bill used to pay
for the fight against terrorism, including the Iraq war. President Bush signed
the bill this month.
The new law forbids the Pentagon from transferring to other disposal sites any of the $813.4 million earmarked in past years for chemical destruction programs at the Blue Grass depot and in Pueblo, Colo.
The Defense Department also must spend at least $100 million at the two sites within four months of enactment and provide regular updates to Congress about where money is going.
With his letter to the GAO, McConnell included documents that he thinks "clearly display (the department's) purposeful intent to withhold and divert funding" from the sites.
The Pentagon wanted the money to make up for cost overruns at sites that use incineration, the senator and other critics maintain.
Delays in building the chemical neutralization plant at the depot mean the United States could miss an April 2012 treaty deadline for destruction of the stockpile. The nation has never been found in material breach of an arms-control treaty, McConnell noted in the letter.