136th Year... and still on the job!	Friday May 27, 2005

McConnell wants GAO to keep eye on Pentagon

One of the senators who authored language ordering the Pentagon to spend money destroying weapons here and in Kentucky wants to make sure Congressional orders are carried out.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., sent a letter this week to the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ regulatory agency, urging the agency to pay close attention to enforcement of a provision he and his Colorado colleagues added to the fiscal 2005 Supplemental Appropriations Act.

The language prevents the Department of Defense from moving any money already allocated to the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program to other weapons-destruction sites and orders DOD to spend $100 million at the ACWA sites within four months.

ACWA plans to destroy 2,600 tons of mustard agent weapons at the Pueblo Chemical Depot and 523 tons of nerve and mustard agent at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky. The program will use water neutralization to break down the chemicals rather than incineration which has been used at most of the other chemical weapons sites.

Defense Department officials stopped work at the ACWA sites last year charging that the plants were going to be too expensive. They're being redesigned to reduce costs, but local officials at both locations felt compelled to get their Congressional delegations involved when they suspected the Pentagon might be using funds to cover cost overruns elsewhere.

McConnell's letter to the GAO said, “any delay in implementation should be presumptively viewed as willful obstruction on the part of DOD. Thus, for the reasons discussed in this letter, I strongly urge GAO to treat any delay in DOD’s execution of Section 1016 as an illegal policy impoundment, thus triggering GAO’s enforcement powers . . . To do any less would be to subvert the will of Congress, erode this body’s oversight function and undermine Congress’s ‘Power of the Purse.’ ”

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said he fully supported McConnell's request to the GAO.

“Senator McConnell and I expended considerable time and energy to insert the provisions in the FY ’05 supplemental that freed money previously appropriated for Pueblo and Blue Grass by the Congress.

"Unfortunately, the Department of Defense has a long history of ignoring Congress’ instructions, particularly when it comes to the chemical demilitarization program.

“It only makes sense then to make this request to the Government Accountability Office. Without a doubt, we need to make sure that DOD follows Congress’ directives when it comes to the chemical weapons demilitarization program at the Pueblo Depot and at Blue Grass, Kentucky.”