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The fiscal 2011 budget request submitted by U.S. President Barack Obama to Congress yesterday seeks $510.8 million for the Defense Department agency planning chemical weapons disposal operations at the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado and the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky (see GSN, Jan. 26).
The proposed spending plan calls for Blue Grass to receive $251.8 million, with $192.4 million going to research and development and $59.4 million allocated for construction. The request seeks $240.2 million for operations at Pueblo with $174.7 million alloted for research and development and $65.6 million designated for construction. The remaining $18.8 million would be used for program management at the Pentagon's Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program.
Fiscal 2011 begins Oct. 1 of this year.
The current federal budget ultimately alloted $550 million to the program, which has oversight over the last two installations set to begin destruction of their chemical agent stockpiles.
Construction continues on neutralization plants at both locations; officials hope that disarmament activities will be completed at Pueblo by 2017 and at Blue Grass by 2021. The Kentucky site has 523 tons of sarin, VX and mustard blister agent awaiting disposal while its Colorado counterpart has 2,611 tons of mustard agent set to be destroyed.
The budget request is 6 percent smaller than the president's proposal for this year, which saw funding boosted by Congress. The decrease is primarily the result of reduced funding requirements for ACWA program management, according to an agency budget document.
Funding levels for the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, which is conducting chemical weapons disarmament operations at several U.S. sites, were not immediately known (Rachel Oswald, Global Security Newswire, Feb. 2).