136th Year... and
still on the job!
Friday February 18,
2005
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136th Year... and
still on the job!
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Friday February 18,
2005
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One of the leading proponents in Congressional efforts to get the destruction of chemical weapons here under way got some support from the new Secretary of State Thursday.
Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., questioned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the impact of delays at the Pueblo Chemical Depot on our international treaty obligations in a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday.
"The Chemical Weapons Convention treaty, which was ratified by the United States in 1997, sets out a very specific deadline for destruction of our chemical weapons stockpiles," said Allard. "Delays at the Pueblo Chemical Depot and other sites around the country are jeopardizing our ability to comply with that treaty, and I was pleased to hear the Secretary of State’s perspective on this issue."
A spokeswoman for Allard quoted Rice as saying, "If the United States of America is not complying with its obligations, then it is going to be hard to force anyone else to comply. We are very much a country of laws that insist upon our own compliance, and we want to keep that record."
"Dr. Rice’s response underscores the importance of timely destruction of our chemical weapons stored at the Pueblo Chemical Depot and other sites around the country," Allard said. "If there is not swift action, it will be impossible for us to meet the 2012 deadline outlined in the treaty, and international efforts to destroy chemical weapons could be undermined."
The Department of Defense has halted all work at the Pueblo Chemical Depot and stripped most of the funding for the project while a study of alternatives to on-site destruction is completed.