Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I ask for the immediate consideration of amendment No. 570, as modified.

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The amendment has been reported. It is now pending.

Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, when we have a conflict or a problem in my home State, we resolve it the Oregon way: by finding consensus and building common ground.

That is why, when it became apparent 20 years ago that the U.S. Army's Chemical Depot in Umatilla, OR, would be closing once all the chemical weapons were destroyed, the community leaders gathered all the stakeholders and began the process of planning what to do with the land once the facility closed. The Umatilla Depot straddles two counties, several cities, and historic tribal lands, so there are a lot of folks in my home State who are interested in what happens to the land.

As progress was made in destroying the weapons at Umatilla, the community built common ground and found a genuine consensus. The Federal Government would support it. It gave more than $1 million in assistance. When the facility was listed in the 2005 BRAC recommendations for closure, the Pentagon eventually recognized the group of stakeholders as an official Local Reuse Authority.

Everything appeared on track until last month. That was when, at the eleventh hour, the Pentagon changed the rules. After decades of planning and $1 million in preparation, a lawyer at the Pentagon decided to reinterpret the law and declared that the 2005 BRAC report--which became law when Congress didn't pass a resolution of disapproval--didn't matter. That lawyer decided that the Umatilla Depot would be closed outside of the BRAC authority because the last of the chemical weapons wouldn't be destroyed until after the 6-year limit for completion of BRAC actions. What this lawyer either didn't know or somehow missed is that this was precisely the intention of the BRAC Commission when they put the Umatilla Depot on the closure list.

The BRAC report discusses the fact that the mission of destroying the chemical weapons wouldn't be completed until after the deadline. On page 239 of the report, the Commission found that Secretary Rumsfeld's assertion that the chemical demilitarization mission at Umatilla would be complete by the second quarter of this year was optimistic. The Commission wrote:

An examination of status information for the depot's mission completion and subsequent closure revealed that dates may slip beyond the 6-year statutory period for completion of the BRAC actions.

Therefore, the Commission took the Secretary of Defense's recommendation ``Close Umatilla Chemical Depot, OR'' and changed it to ``On completion of the chemical demilitarization mission in accordance with treaty obligations, close Umatilla Chemical Depot, OR.''

These facts make it clear the Commission did not--as the Pentagon has claimed recently--make a conditional recommendation that the facility only be closed if the chemical demilitarization mission is completed by September of 2011. Rather, the Commission acknowledged that the closure will have to happen when the demilitarization mission is completed even if that is after September of 2011. That decision by the Commission became law.

It is also important to note that the Commission is aware that the demilitarization mission had a deadline of its own. Under the terms of the Chemical Weapons Convention Treaty, Umatilla must complete the mission by April 29, 2012.

UMCD will meet this deadline, if not beat it. The Commission was not giving authority for the mission at UMCD to be one of a never-ending nature. They were simply giving UMCD the additional 8 months provided under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The depot should be closed under BRAC so the will of the community, in the form of the local reuse authority, and the will of Congress in the BRAC law will be taken into account.

I strongly believe the local community should decide what to do with the land and not somebody who is off in the basement of the Pentagon.

I have spoken with Secretary Panetta about this matter, and he is fully supportive of our efforts.

I wish to also thank Senator Johnson and my good friend from Arizona, Senator McCain, who have also been very helpful--and their staff--in working with us. The Pentagon has to implement the law as it is, not, in my view, as it wants. But since the lawyers at the Pentagon have in recent weeks thought there was some ambiguity, I wished to clarify it for them with the amendment that has been modified with the good counsel of the staff of Senator McCain.

Let me also say, the staff of Senator McCain has been very helpful in saying this would be permissive authority in terms of the Pentagon and that the Senator could join me in a letter making it clear it is important this be moved expeditiously. I hope we can complete this matter at this time.

My amendment, which I offer on behalf of myself and my colleague, Senator Merkley, would allow the Pentagon to follow the BRAC commission's report and close the Umatilla Depot under BRAC.

With that, I yield the floor.

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