[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 71 (Thursday, June 9, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
        NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1995

                                 ______


                               speech of

                         HON. MARTIN OLAV SABO

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 8, 1994

       The House in the Committee of the Whole House on the State 
     of the Union for the further consideration of the bill (H.R. 
     4301) to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 1995 for 
     military activities of the Department of Defense, to 
     prescribe military personnel strengths for fiscal year 1995, 
     and for other purposes:

  Mr. SABO. Mr. Chairman, I rise to express my support for the Kopetski 
amendment on nuclear testing. The amendment essentially duplicates the 
language of House Concurrent Resolution 235, a resolution I introduced 
earlier this year with support from Mr. Kopetski, the distinguished 
majority leader, and the distinguished chairman of the Committee on 
Armed Services.
  Since late January, the United States has been engaged in 
negotiations for a comprehensive nuclear test ban [CTB] treaty. By all 
accounts, those talks are going very well. There is real reason to hope 
that the essential framework of a CTB treaty will be in place by the 
end of the year.
  None of this would have taken place, however, without the clear and 
consistent support for a CTB treaty expressed by the House of 
Representatives over the last decade. During the last two 
administrations, when various objections were being placed in the way 
of CTB talks, this body again and again emphasized the simple fact that 
limits on nuclear weapons testing were in the U.S. national security 
interest.
  That is truer today then ever before. It has become increasingly 
clear that the spread of nuclear weapons would constitute a major 
threat to our security. A comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, along 
with indefinite extension of the NonProliferation Treaty, would 
establish an international framework for controlling this technology.

  These treaties won't be the complete answer to nuclear proliferation. 
Countries such as Iraq and Korea, and indeed, other states, could 
develop nuclear technology on their own given enough time and money. 
However, it is important to note that the NPT has given us the 
framework which is being used to slow and perhaps stop the North Korean 
bomb. The NPT also provided the legal justification for the nuclear 
inspections in Iraq after the conclusion of the Gulf war.
  Thus, the Non-Proliferation Treaty has been an essential tool for 
controlling the spread of nuclear weapons, and its extension next year 
will be a crucial factor in the future success of that effort.
  To forge an international consensus for indefinite extension of the 
NPT, however, the United States needs to demonstrate its commitment to 
ending the arms race. Every U.S. President from Eisenhower to Carter 
supported negotiation of a CTB Treaty as evidence of that commitment. I 
am very pleased President Clinton has once again made a nuclear testing 
treaty a major goal of U.S. foreign policy.
  The President is to be commended for his policy, and other countries 
must be encouraged to both abide by the existing informal moratorium on 
nuclear testing, and to complete a CTB treaty as soon as possible. Mr. 
Kopetski's amendment speaks to these issues, and should be supported. I 
urge adoption of the amendment.