[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 195 (Friday, December 8, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S18297-S18298]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          SPEEDY SENATE RATIFICATION OF START II IS NECESSARY

 Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, Wednesday Senator Bingaman gave an 
important statement about the necessity to ratify START II quickly, and 
I would like to add my voice in support of his position.
  START II will cut the number of the world's nuclear weapons in half, 
getting rid of nearly 4,000 deployed H-bombs in Russia and about the 
same number here. An overwhelming number of our citizens favor 
implementing this treaty, and a large number of elected officials on 
both sides of the aisle have expressed their support for it. Names and 
statements of support by Republican leaders were read by my friend from 
New Mexico, and I will not take time to add to this list now. 

[[Page S 18298]]

  Apparently START II is being held hostage in a dispute over the 
consolidation of our foreign affairs agencies. I hope this is not the 
case.
  Even worse, some groups are now calling to add certain conditions for 
ratifying START II. These conditions have all been discussed in bills 
that have now passed the Senate, and should not be attached to the 
ratification of a treaty. The Senate can not change START II, either we 
ratify it or not. Attaching political conditions on a treaty is a 
dangerous practice and should be avoided on procedural considerations.
  Mr. President, START II should be ratified for many reasons. First, 
START II destroys weapons. This reduces the risk of an accidental 
launch. Second, every Russian weapon destroyed is a weapon we don't 
need to defend against. The following table shows the numbers and kinds 
of ICBMs that can be eliminated under START II.
  I ask that it be printed in the Record.
  The table follows:

       INTERNATIONAL BALLISTIC MISSILES--ELIMINATED UNDER START II      
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                Delivery system                  Launchers     Warheads 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SS-18.........................................          188        1,880
SS-19.........................................      \1\ 170        1,020
SS-24.........................................           46          460
SLBM's........................................  ...........      \2\ 600
------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals....................................          304       3,960 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Some SS-19's may be converted to carry only a single warhead in     
  order to offset the cost of developing a new launcher.                
\2\ Based on limit of 1,750 submarine launched ballistic missiles. The  
  current Russian arsenal of SLBM's is estimated at 2,350.              
                                                                        
  Source: ``Bulletin of Atomic Scientists,'' Nuclear Notebook, September/
  October 1995.                                                         

  Mr. HARKIN. Additionally, destroying weapons saves taxpayers' money. 
Just look at the current Senate Defense authorization bill. As my 
friend from New Mexico pointed out in the report to the Defense 
Authorization Act, the act ``proposes a nuclear weapons manufacturing 
complex sized to meet a need of a hedge stockpile far above the active 
START II stockpile of 3500 weapons.'' The total cost of producing our 
nuclear weapons to date is about $4 trillion. Compare that with our $5 
trillion national debt. In 1995 alone, $12.4 billion was spent to 
build, operate and maintain strategic nuclear weapons. If we ratify 
START II we can give taxpayers the double peace dividend of higher 
security at lower cost.
  Even if START II were fully implemented, we would have more than 
3,000 deployed strategic missiles--500 warheads on missiles in silos, 
1,680 warheads on submarine-launched missiles, and 1,320 on airplanes. 
Furthermore, an additional 4,000 nuclear weapons would remain in our 
stockpile. Surely, this will be more than enough atomic fire power to 
counter any conceivable threat to the United States.
  Mr. President, Russia and other former Soviet Republics are more open 
than ever before. We have all seen the unprecedented pictures on 
television of Russian missiles and airplanes being destroyed. This new 
openness will make START II even more verifiable then START I. With 
Russian elections this month and our own presidential election season 
just starting, we must act now to keep the this olive branch from 
withering.
  In conclusion, Mr. President, we need to ratify START II quickly. It 
is not in the national interest to play politics over the ratification 
of any treaty. Russian President Yeltsin is ill and needs quick 
American ratification of START II to help get the Russian Parliament to 
ratify it. We need the security of fewer Russian warheads now. We need 
to stop spending so much money making our nuclear weapons now. We can 
use the warheads we have now to defend America. We need to ratify START 
II now.

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