McConnell urges proper spending of depot funds
Ronica Brandenburg/Register News Writer

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell is already taking steps to ensure proper spending of the funds included in the 2005 Supplemental Spending Bill just two weeks after it was signed into law by President Bush.

McConnell sent a letter Monday to David Walker, comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), asking that the office closely monitor the Department of Defense's enforcement of a recent provision in the fiscal year 2005 Supplemental Appropriations Act to protect funds for the Blue Grass Army Depot.

The provision, authored by McConnell, ensures that the DOD will not divert prior year Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA) money to other sites. It also forces the department to spend $100 million at the ACWA sites within four months.

"These lethal chemical agents need to be safely and efficiently disposed of by the DOD," McConnell said. "I told the residents of Madison County that I would watch the DOD like a hawk and I am fulfilling that promise."

McConnell's distrust of the DOD stems from a 20-year battle about how and when the chemical weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot would be destroyed.

"Any delay in the implementation should be viewed as willful obstruction on the part of the DOD," McConnell wrote in the letter. "Thus, for the reasons discussed in this letter, I strongly urge the GAO to treat any delay in the DOD's execution of (the disposal of weapons) as an illegal policy impoundment, thus triggering GAO's enforcement powers."

McConnell said "to do any less would be to subvert the will of Congress, erode this body's oversight function and undermine Congress's 'Power of the Purse.'"

McConnell calls his latest effort "a legislative measure far from routine." Craig Williams, director of the citizens' watchdog organization Chemical Weapons Working Group, agrees that the action taken by McConnell was hard-hitting.

"This letter tiptoes right up to the line of accusing the Pentagon of violating federal law in their previous actions surrounding the freezing of funds for disposal efforts in Kentucky and Colorado," Williams said. "It doesn't specifically state any illegal activity has occurred, but it certainly lets the Pentagon know that if they continue to act as in the past, an investigation surrounding the legality of such actions could be initiated immediately."

McConnell also included with the letter several documents that "clearly reflect the DOD's pre-existing intent to slow the disposal efforts at the ACWA sites."

"I believe the documents I provided make it clear that the department has (shown) intent to impound funding intended for the ACWA program to meet its policy goals," he wrote.

Over the past year, the Department of Defense froze approximately $300 million of fiscal year 2005 funds for the 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 bill was later signed by Bush on May 12 which will sustain the flow of funding to keep weapons disposal at the depot on schedule.

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