DENVER—The Senate has approved an amendment that would give the Army 10 years to destroy lethal chemical weapons stored in Pueblo and in Richmond, Ky.
The measure, part of a Defense Department authorization bill, sets a Dec. 31, 2017, deadline. The full bill is expected to be approved next week. It would then go to a conference committee to reconcile differences from the House version.
The amendment also authorizes the Army to spend an additional $32 million for chemical destruction at the Pueblo Chemical Depot and an additional $17.3 million at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky.
That spending, if approved by the secretary of defense, would be in addition to any money appropriated by Congress this year.
The amendment was sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.
A chemical weapons treaty signed by the U.S. and nearly 180 other countries calls for the chemical weapons to be destroyed by 2012, but the Army has said it will not finish by then.
McConnell has said that without the deadline set in the Senate legislation, the Army wouldn’t finish until 2023.
The Pueblo depot stores 2,611 tons of mustard agent in projectiles and cartridges. The Blue Grass depot stores 532 tons of nerve and blister agents in rockets and projectiles.
