U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell says when he first went to Washington the chemical weapons stockpile was "the first problem that landed in my lap."  That was two decades ago and the senior Kentucky Senator's frustration has spiked in recent weeks since the Pentagon slashed funding for a plant to neutralize the 523 ton stockpile.  The funding cut essentially delays the two billion dollar project for five years.

"They've got a big department to run, they've got a war in Iraq to deal with, they've got a lot of problems.  I don't think they were out to get us," McConnell told Action News 36 during a stop in Lexington Thursday.  McConnell says a "money crunch" and cost over runs at other chemical weapons sites "behind schedule" in destroying their stockpiles contributed to the delays. 

 McConnell has had meetings with high ranking Department of Defense officials in hopes of getting the Richmond project moving again.  "We're working on it," the Senator said about those discussions.  "The president's initial budget is not what we would like, but the president doesn't make the final decisions on that and we're going to work on it and try to get it back on schedule," McConnell said of Congress' role in funding chemical weapons destruction.

  McConnell did say the nearly 70,000 nerve agent filled rockets will not be moved from the Blue Grass Army Depot, as the Pentagon recently revived as a possibility.  "These dangerous weapons are not going to be shipped and they're not going to be incinerated.  They're going to be destroyed by the chemical process that is proven to be feasible and we're going to try to get that timetable for destruction reestablished."