for more information contact:
Craig Williams (859) 986-7565

for immediate release: Wednesday, October 24, 2007

U.S. REP. BEN CHANDLER RALLIES KY & CO HOUSE MEMBERS IN SUPPORT
OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS DESTRUCTION DEADLINE
Letter to House Armed Services Committee Pushes for Acceptance of McConnell Senate Amendment

As the House and Senate begins to confer on the 2008 Defense Authorization Bill this week, Representative Ben Chandler (D-KY) is leading the effort to ensure House acceptance of a critical amendment to the bill. The amendment, authored by Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and co-sponsored by Senators Allard (R- CO), Salazar (D-CO) and Bunning (R-KY), would mandate completion of disposal of the entire U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons by the end of 2017, including those stored in Kentucky and Colorado. The House version of the Authorization Bill has no such language, and therefore this is an issue that will be brought to conference between the two chambers.

Chandler penned a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee and secured the signatures of every member from both states, Republican and Democrat, backing the amendment.

The letter states, "The Chemical Weapons Convention treaty, signed by the U.S. requires us to dispose of the weapons by 2012. Although we are unable to meet that deadline, getting as close as possible will protect our citizens, help us comply with the international law and save taxpayers billions of dollars."

Under the current Pentagon plan the amount of funds allocated to Kentucky and Colorado's disposal efforts would push the completion dates out to 2023 and 2020 respectively, forcing communities nearby to live under the shadow of these WMDs years longer than needed based strictly on budget decisions. Ironically, stretching the completion date out at the two sites would in fact cost taxpayers an additional $3.3 billion in the long term merely for minor savings during each year.

"This makes no sense fiscally," said Craig Williams, director of the Berea, KY- based Chemical Weapons Working Group. "But even more importantly, it puts tens of thousands of Americans at increased risk for no reason other than to shift money away from destroying these weapons. I can't think of anything that should be of higher priority than protecting our citizens from this dangerous arsenal," he said.

The two weapons sites store over 3,100 tons of chemical warfare agent. Kentucky houses what's been identified as the most dangerous of all the weapons stored anywhere in the U.S. - sarin-filled M-55 rockets.

Chandler said, "We simply cannot put off the disposal of these dangerous chemical weapons any longer, and making 2017 the legal deadline will ensure that this process gets underway. We've faced numerous setbacks in the last few years, and it is my hope that this step will finally put us on the path to eliminating this threat from our communities."

The bill is expected to be completed by the end of next week.

" People at both states are pleased to see the bipartisanship in both the House and Senate in working to ensure these weapons are destroyed as expeditiously as possible," said Williams.

--30--

Copies of the letter are available upon request or can be seen at <www.cwwg.org>.