138th Year... and still on the job!	Tuesday June 27, 2006

Area military funds Ok'd in budget bill

Senate approves $294 million for chem demil, Fort Carson.

By PETER ROPER

THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

The Senate approved a massive Defense Department authorization budget bill late last week that includes $294 million in projects next year for Fort Carson and the Pueblo Chemical Depot.

The 2007 defense authorization bill spells out the budget items that the Pentagon wants and Congress endorses. A later bill, the Defense Appropriation Bill, actually sets dollar figures to each project.

The Senate bill authorizes:

$42 million for Pueblo Chemical Depot to continue work on building a neutralization system to destroy mustard agent weapons stored there.

$202 million to build a Brigade Combat Team complex ($118 million) at Fort Carson as well as a new headquarters building for the 4th Infantry Division ($84 million) that will be based there, beginning next year.

An additional $50 million for Fort Carson to complete construction of a rapid mobilization airfield arrival/departure complex as well as a special operations center.

Authorization bills, like spending bills, often attract amendments aimed at specific issues.

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., added language to the bill a week ago calling on the Army to answer a list of specific questions about its plans to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site and how it intends to acquire the additional 400,000 acres the Army wants there.

Similarly, Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., attached an amendment requiring the Pentagon to destroy the mustard agent weapons at the Pueblo depot by April 2012, or as soon as possible thereafter.