LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Four senators have offered a proposal aimed at accelerating the destruction of chemical weapons stored in Kentucky and Colorado.
The measure would set a 2017 deadline for disposing of the entire U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons, provide $49.3 million in additional funds for the job and require the Defense Department to give twice-a-year updates on progress.
The measure, an amendment to a defense policy bill, is sponsored by Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and co-sponsored by Sens. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Ken Salazar, D-Colo.
Large stockpiles of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, sarin and VX, have been stored in bunkers at Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond and the Pueblo Chemical Depot near Pueblo, Colo., for decades.
Craig Williams, director of the Berea, Ky.-based watchdog Chemical Weapons Working Group, said the amendment was a necessary prod to complete a task that has been discussed since the 1980s.
“It’s the kick in the pants that I think the Pentagon needs in order to get the Kentucky stockpile on a reasonable course for disposal,” Williams said Wednesday by phone.
The senators had harsh words for the Defense Department’s handling of the weapons disposal.
“DOD has been stonewalling for years and it is time for them to produce results,” Bunning said.
Allard said the Defense Department “has consistently failed to provide sufficient funding for this program, and thus delayed the destruction of chemical weapons on site.”
McConnell, the Senate minority leader who introduced the amendment this week, said the department has “shown an unwillingness to commit the necessary resources” to get the job done. “It has been demonstrated that the longer these weapons remain in storage at the facility, the more unstable they become.”
McConnell said the chemical weapons not only pose a risk to Richmond-area residents, but also present a “national security risk if they fall into the wrong hands.”
