Washington – A $436.6 billion funding measure for the Defense Department includes money for several Colorado projects, including continued work toward cleaning up chemical weapons at the Pueblo Army Depot.
The Pueblo facility will receive $87 million to study possible ways to destroy the chemicals in place. They are too dangerous to move, said Laura Condeluci, spokeswoman for Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The funding bill, which passed Congress on Thursday, also includes $20 million nationwide for military-base buffer-zone projects, land purchased at the edges of bases to provide space between the military facilities and surrounding communities.
Fort Carson is considered a top priority for that project, but it’s not known how much money the base near Colorado Springs will get for buffer zones.
Schriever Air Force Base, also near Colorado Springs, will receive $8 million for the Missile Defense Agency’s Joint National Integration Center, which conducts testing, modeling, simulation and analysis of missiles. The center is seeking to integrate work on different types of missiles in one place.
Colorado Springs-based U.S. Northern Command, which coordinates military responses in North America, will receive $1.9 million for a partnership with the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs to offer the nation’s first federally funded doctoral program in homeland defense.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said he requested money for several projects in the bill, including $3.9 million for Colorado-based North American Aerospace Defense Command toward development of the Single Integrated Space Picture, which aims to take information from satellites and organize it in a more manageable way.
The bill includes money for projects by various Colorado companies, including $2 million for field hospital tents by Alaska Structures of Delta, $2 million for lightweight induction motors for the military by Vforge Inc. of Lakewood, and $1.4 million for an air-dropped sensor for secret missions by ADA Technologies in Littleton.
