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TESTIMONY
OF
THE HONORABLE DALE KLEIN
ASSISTANT TO THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
FOR NUCLEAR AND CHEMICAL AND
BIOLOGICAL DEFENSE PROGRAMS
BEFORE THE
HOUSE
ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, UNCONVENTIONAL
THREATS AND CAPABILITIES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
REGARDING
u.s.
chemical demilitarization program
APRIL
1, 2004
Mr. Chairman and
distinguished committee members, thank you
for the opportunity to appear before you
today to discuss the Department of Defense
Chemical Demilitarization Program.
I am Dr. Dale Klein, the
Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for
Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Defense
Programs. In this capacity, I am the
principal advisor to the Secretary and
Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Under
Secretary of Defense for Acquisition,
Technology and Logistics, for all matters
concerning the formulation of policy and
plans for nuclear, chemical, and biological
defense programs and directly responsible
for matters associated with nuclear weapons
safety and security and chemical weapons
demilitarization.
The mission of the DoD
Chemical Demilitarization Program is to
safely destroy all U.S. chemical
warfare-related materiel while ensuring
maximum protection of the public, personnel
involved in the destruction effort, and the
environment. We have learned since 1986,
when Congress mandated the destruction of
our chemical weapons stockpile, that there
are many unanticipated challenges associated
with a national program of this magnitude.
Indeed, the Chemical Demilitarization
Program is now entering an important
milestone, where six separate sites each
operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in
four separate time zones, will be
simultaneously destroying different chemical
agents in various configurations, using
different technologies, and employing
different contractors.
Today I would like to provide
a brief status update on the DoD Chemical
Demilitarization Program and to reaffirm the
importance of fully funding the President’s
Fiscal Year 2005 Chemical Demilitarization
Program Budget request, which has been
submitted in compliance with Public Law
107-314, Section 141a.
Program Status
Currently, three chemical
weapons destruction sites are operational.
These include the incinerators at Tooele,
Utah and Anniston, Alabama, and
neutralization technology at Aberdeen,
Maryland. The Department expects to begin
operations at three additional sites during
2004, to include incinerators at Umatilla,
Oregon and Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and the
neutralization technology site at Newport,
Indiana. The remaining neutralization sites
at Pueblo, Colorado and Blue Grass,
Kentucky, are early in the design and
environmental permitting stages of
development. While this is a summary-level
synopsis of the overall status, I can
provide you a more detailed account of the
status on a site-by-site basis if desired.
FY 2005
Budget Summary
The funds requested for the
Chemical Demilitarization Program in the
Fiscal Year 2005 President’s Budget are
necessary for the Department of Defense to
destroy the U.S. national chemical weapons
stockpile as mandated by Public Law 99-145
and the Chemical Weapons Convention. These
funds will allow the Department to continue
chemical weapons destruction operations at
Tooele, Utah; Anniston, Alabama; Umatilla,
Oregon; Newport, Indiana; and Pine Bluff,
Arkansas. The request also funds ton
container cleanout operations at Aberdeen,
Maryland; maintains Chemical Stockpile
Emergency Preparedness Program activities at
all remaining chemical weapons stockpile
sites; and continues the design,
environmental permitting and military
construction projects at the Pueblo,
Colorado and Blue Grass, Kentucky sites.
Eliminating targets of
opportunity for terrorists such as the
continued storage of our chemical weapons
stockpile is essential. It is also
essential to ensuring the U.S.
meets its Chemical Weapons
Convention obligations. Maintaining
operations at all current destruction sites
allow us to achieve the Chemical Weapons
Convention 45% extended deadline of December
31, 2007.
Assembled Chemical Weapons
Alternatives Program (ACWA)
While six of the eight
chemical weapons destruction sites are
expected to be operational in Fiscal Year
2005, the Department has only recently begun
the acquisition process for the two
remaining sites at Pueblo, Colorado and Blue
Grass, Kentucky.
At the beginning stages of
any acquisition program, the Department is
required to conduct analyses to ensure that
the program conforms to reasonable cost and
schedule guidelines. These analyses help
fulfill our obligation of responsible
resource management to the U.S. taxpayer.
Late last year, the Department reviewed the
emerging design concept for Pueblo, and
contrary to our expectations, it was
different than originally approved, with
unanticipated additional funding
requirements. The Department is therefore
conducting evaluations of design variants
for Pueblo as well as for Blue Grass.
The Department has been asked
why the President’s Fiscal Year 2005
chemical demilitarization budget request for
$1.5 billion reduces research and
development funding for the Pueblo Chemical
Agent Pilot Plant by $147 million. In
exercising our due diligence, we recognized
that the ACWA Program would have
difficulties obligating and disbursing the
funding previously identified for the Pueblo
project, given the expectation of carryover
funds from Fiscal Year 2004. Pending the
results of our design concept analysis, we
moved $147 million from the Pueblo research
and development funding line to balance the
requirements and resources identified in
other areas of the Chemical Demilitarization
Program. These include critical Chemical
Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program
requirements and an improved chemical agent
monitoring capability. These are areas that
have been repeatedly scrutinized by members
of Congress, state and local governments,
and special interest groups. Based on
information provided by the Army, the
Department agrees that increasing funding in
these areas will address these important
issues.
We also agree with citizens
and elected officials alike that it is
important to accelerate destruction efforts
at Pueblo and Blue Grass. We also agree
that any facility we design, construct, and
operate must be safe, environmentally
protective, and cost effective as required
by Congress which was the basis of our
technology selections at both sites. Our
efforts to exercise fiscal responsibility on
this program have never been intended or
expected to delay the actual destruction of
chemical agent at Pueblo or Blue Grass. Our
intent is to confirm that the technologies
chosen for these two sites are cost
effective, technically viable, and able to
ensure the safety of the surrounding
communities, workers, and the environment.
As the General Accounting
Office reported last September, management
of the DoD Chemical Demilitarization Program
is unnecessarily complex and should be
streamlined. While the Army has done a
great job of streamlining the program by the
creation of the Chemical Materials Agency,
further efficiencies are necessary.
Consolidation of all chemical weapons
elimination efforts into a single
organization will create economies of scale
and will allow us to unify the program
during a time of much activity. The ACWA
Program has been successful in identifying
the technology to be used at the Pueblo,
Colorado and Blue Grass, Kentucky sites.
Now we need to move through the
implementation phase. Placing the ACWA
program under the Army with continued OSD
oversight will enable the Army to better
manage the total Chemical Demilitarization
Program.
Final Remarks
In conclusion, I want to
emphasize the Department’s commitment to
destroying our nation’s chemical weapons
stockpile safely and expeditiously. We have
many distinct challenges; however, we are
prepared to work every issue to bolster our
overall efforts in this prominent national
security program, and to meet our
obligations under the Chemical Weapons
Convention. I welcome your comments on our
program’s progress, and look forward to
working with you to advance our common goal
of the safe and complete destruction of our
national chemical weapons stockpile. |
