for more information:
Craig Williams (859) 302-1103
Ross Vincent (719) 561-3117
for immediate release: Friday
May 7, 2004
COLORADO SENATOR ANNOUNCES RESTORATION
OF $147 MILLION SLASHED FROM PUEBLO WEAPONS DESTRUCTION PROGRAM
After meeting with a Senate Armed
Services Subcommittee, Senator Wayne Allard announced today that committee
members had voted to restore funding for the Pueblo chemical weapons neutralization
program that had been cut out of the 2005 Defense budget request earlier
this year.
In February it was revealed that the Pentagon had singled
out Pueblo and slashed $146.9 million from the $151.7 million anticipated
for its weapons program in order to earmark these funds for disposal programs
at other sites. Leaving just $4.8 million meant that Pueblo’s weapons
destruction schedule could be delayed anywhere from six months to two years.
After more than two months of working to ensure adequate
funding for Pueblo’s weapons program, Allard commented, “We have scored
a major victory for the people of Pueblo and southern Colorado.” Pueblo
residents also view the restoration of Pueblo funding a huge victory, but
one that they should not have had to fight for.
Colorado Citizens Advisory Commission (CAC) member
Ross Vincent said, “Once again, Congress has had to rescue the nation’s chemical
weapons disposal efforts from colossal mismanagement by self-serving bureaucrats
at the Pentagon. This should not be necessary. If the Pentagon
would simply support us instead of interfering, here in Pueblo we’ll get
rid of the weapons safely and quickly. The community, the program leadership
and the contractors all understand what needs to be done and we are prepared
to do it and save the taxpayers money in the process.”
John Klomp, Chair of the Colorado CAC, commented further,
“This Congressional authorization enables Pueblo to go forward with removal
of the threat from these weapons that have been stored in our communities
for many years.”
Not only is the news out of Washington good for Colorado,
additionally it bodes well for weapons destruction at the Blue Grass Army
Depot in Kentucky where a similar neutralization process will be deployed.
Delays in the Colorado process would have negatively affected the design
and schedule for the Kentucky facility.
Craig Williams, executive director of the Kentucky-based
Chemical Weapons Working Group, said, “Despite the determined attempts
by certain Pentagon officials to derail the safe destruction of chemical
weapons in Colorado and Kentucky, the will of the people and their Congressional
leaders has once again prevailed. This is great news.”
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