U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, (R) Kentucky, is not impressed by the Pentagon's
decision to unfreeze $30 million this year to keep design work going on a
plant to dispose of 523 tons of chemical weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot
near Richmond. "I thought this piddly 30 million dollars that they
reallocated is irrelevant," McConnell told Action News 36. "I mean
it's not enough to get us back on schedule." The army and its private contractor had counted on $140 million this year
before the Pentagon pulled the plug on most of the funding for the next five
years, putting the project into "caretaker status." Craig Williams, of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, says the program
is "alive but barely." Williams says he is worried that delays will
create more safety concerns, because the lethal stockpile will continue to
age.