Wyden
offers resolution calling for comprehensive
schedule to destroy chemical weapons stockpiles
Resolution also calls for annual reports to Congress
May 16, 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following announcements by the Department of
Defense that the U.S. would not meet its 2007 treaty deadline for the
destruction of its chemical weapons — or the five-year extension
provided under the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty — U.S. Senator
Ron Wyden has cosponsored a resolution urging the Secretary of Defense
to “prepare a comprehensive schedule for safely destroying the United
States chemical weapons stockpiles”; the resolution also calls for
annual reports to Congress on the progress of that effort.
“We are sending a clear message that the United States Congress
wants the safe destruction of these chemical weapons to be a priority
for the Department of Defense,” Wyden said. “It is not acceptable
for the Defense Department to continually roll back the deadline for destroying
these weapons. The people living in communities around the Umatilla Depot
deserve better.”
The bipartisan sense of the Senate resolution was introduced today by
U.S. Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colorado) and cosponsored by Wyden and U.S.
Senators Wayne Allard (R-Colorado), Evan Bayh (D-Indiana), Jim Bunning
(R-Kentucky) and Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky).
Last May, Wyden also joined with Allard and Salazar in passing legislation
to prevent the transportation of chemical weapons materials across state
borders and into Oregon. That law prohibits the Department of Defense
from funding any study on the feasibility of transporting the chemical
munitions at the Pueblo, Colorado Chemical Depot to out-of-state sites
to be destroyed; one possible incinerator site for transported chemical
weapons materials would have been the Umatilla Chemical Depot.
Wyden has long been an advocate of safety at the Umatilla Chemical Depot
and in the surrounding communities. In 1999, he released a study from
the Government Accountability Office that found that an emergency preparedness
program at the facility lacked sufficient management; Wyden then worked
with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Army representatives
to ensure the maximum protection for citizens living and working near
the facility. And in 2003, he worked with U.S. Senator Gordon Smith (R-Oregon)
and U.S. Representative Greg Walden (R-Oregon) to secure $4.1 million
for a variety of safety projects in and around the Umatilla Depot.
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