136th Year... and still on the job!	Thursday July 21, 2005

Senators avoid Chemical Depot glitch

THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

WASHINGTON - A technical problem with the Fiscal Year 2006 Department of Defense budget that could have stalled progress at the Pueblo Chemical Depot for another year has been corrected by a bipartisan amendment.

Sens. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., Wayne Allard, R-Colo., John Warner, R-Va., Carl Levin, D-Mich., Jim Bunning, R-Ky., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sponsored the amendment ensuring that $51 million will be available next year for construction, planning, and design work at both the Pueblo Chemical Depot and at the Bluegrass Kentucky Chemical Depot site.

Under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the chemical weapons stored at these sites must be destroyed by 2012.

“We need to start construction at the depot as quickly as possible,” Allard said. “This technical change was needed so that we can get the ball rolling as fast as possible.”

“This amendment is an essential step forward for the destruction of the tons of chemical weapons still stored at the Pueblo Chemical Depot,” Salazar said. “I hope this is another indication that the Pentagon recognizes the urgency this situation demands.”

Without the amendment from the six senators, the Department of Defense would not have been able to spend funds under the appropriate accounts. Their fix moves money from the research, development, test and evaluation budget to the military construction budget for chemical weapons destruction.

While the bipartisan Pueblo amendment was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate, the Defense Authorization Bill still needs to be passed on the Senate floor, passed in conference and passed by both houses of Congress before it becomes law.