Andrea Joy Campbell: “I would like to thank my Colorado colleague, Senator Brown, for proposing this amendment of which I am a cosponsor. The…”

“I would like to thank my Colorado colleague, Senator Brown, for proposing this amendment of which I am a cosponsor. The city of Pueblo faces a dual burden from the chemical weapons stockpile at the Pueblo Depot. First, Pueblo's citizens must cope with a controversial and complicated chemical demilitarization effort. Second, as the depot was realigned in 1988, Pueblo must deal with finding ways to profitably reuse excess facilities. Unfortunately, despite years of effort by the depot's reuse commission, the reuse process is still blocked. People like Mel Takaki, Chuck Finley, and many others worked hard to find users who would be willing to pay for space at the depot's buildings, and they have some takers. They still cannot come to a satisfactory agreement with the Army on leasing the depot's facilities--it seems mostly because of uncertainty about the needs of the demilitarization process. There are not many communities that face this type of situation. There are only eight chemical weapons stockpile sites in the United States. All this amendment does is require the Defense Secretary to let us know that he understands the unique problems faced by Pueblo and other communities in the vicinity of chemical weapons stockpile sites.”