President signs bill for weapons disposal
Ronica Brandenburg/Register News Writer

President Bush signed the 2005 Supplemental Spending Bill on Thursday afternoon which will sustain the flow of funding to keep weapons disposal at the Blue Grass Army Depot on schedule.
Sen. Mitch McConnell is responsible for introducing language into the bill to ensure the timely disposal of chemical weapons at the depot.

"I am pleased that the Senate and House approved the provision I authored for the Blue Grass Army Depot," McConnell said. "This is great news for the citizens of Madison County, and I am proud to have led the effort to make it happen."

Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a citizens' watchdog organization, expressed his appreciation for McConnell's efforts to keep the demilitarization process active and on schedule.

"We are now a significant step closer to seeing these weapons destroyed in a timely manner," Williams said. "He (McConnell) has acted with precision, diligence and persistence in making sure the safety of Kentuckians comes first. We all owe him a substantial debt of gratitude for his outstanding efforts and leadership on this issue."

Over the past year, the Department of Defense froze approximately $300 million of fiscal year 2005 funds for the Blue Grass Army Depot and the Pueblo, Colo., site and was conducting a study of possible ways to transport the chemical weapons across state lines.

McConnell announced April 7 that he authored a provision in a fiscal year 2005 supplemental appropriations bill that blocks the Department of Defense from redirecting funds to be used for the disposal of chemical weapons at the BGAD.

The provisions he included in the bill prohibit funds appropriated for the Kentucky and Colorado sites from being used elsewhere, insures that the prior-year money budgeted for Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA) will be used at those two sites, directs that $100 million be obligated to the projects within 120 days and prohibits the expenditure of funds to study transporting the weapons across state lines.

The U.S. Department of Defense released the funding following an announcement April 15 and tabled the option of transporting the weapons away from the BGAD and the Pueblo site.

Ronica Brandenburg can be reached at rbrandenburg@richmondregister.com or 623-1669, Ext. 234.