The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday approved legislation that would provide $92.5 million for construction of a chemical warfare materials demilitarization plant in Colorado, Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo.) announced (see GSN, July 2).
The full Senate must still sign off on the fiscal 2010 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill.
The Defense Department for the next budget year is seeking $550 million for the agency that is building disposal facilities at the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado and the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky. That is roughly $250 million more than anticipated; officials hope that the extra money will help the sites more quickly eliminate their stockpiles of materials banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Pueblo holds 2,611 tons of mustard blister agent. While disposal will not be finished by the April 2012 deadline set by the convention, Udall in a press release expressed hope that with extra money the site could meet the 2017 end-date demanded by Congress.
Additional funding for Pueblo is expected to be included in defense funding legislation, Udall said.
“As a member of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, I have fought for many years to accelerate the weapons destruction at Pueblo Chemical Depot and to ensure all the work is done on site,” Udall said in the release. “This funding is a strong step in the right direction, and I’m going to continue fighting to ensure Congress keeps the money flowing this year and in the years to come. It’s critical that the federal government keep its commitment to complete weapons destruction at the Chemical Depot" (U.S. Senator Mark Udall release, July 7).
There was no immediate word on exactly how much money was included in the military construction bill for work at Blue Grass (Chris Schneidmiller, Global Security Newswire, July 8).