S.Amdt. 3646

SA 3646. Mr. SALAZAR (for himself, Mr. Allard, Mr. McConnell, and Mr. Wyden) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill H.R. 4939, making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006, and for other purposes; as follows:

On page 253, between lines 19 and 20, insert the following:

Sense of the Senate on destruction of chemical weapons

Sec. 7032. (a) The Senate makes the following findings:

(1) The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction, done at Paris on January 13, 1993 (commonly referred to as the “Chemical Weapons Convention”), requires all United States chemical weapons stockpiles be destroyed by April 29, 2012.

(2) On April 10, 2006, the Department of Defense notified Congress that the United States would not meet the deadline under the Chemical Weapons Convention for destruction of United States chemical weapons stockpiles.

(3) Destroying existing chemical weapons is a homeland security imperative, an arms control priority, and required by United States law.

(4) The elimination and nonproliferation of chemical weapons of mass destruction is of utmost importance to the national security of the United States.

(b) It is the sense of the Senate that--

(1) the United States is committed to making every effort to safely dispose of its chemical weapons stockpiles by the Chemical Weapons Convention deadline of April 29, 2012, or as soon thereafter as possible, and will carry out all of its other obligations under the Convention; and

(2) the Secretary of Defense should prepare a comprehensive schedule for safely destroying the United States chemical weapons stockpiles to prevent further delays in the destruction of such stockpiles, and the schedule should be submitted annually to the congressional defense committees.