[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 12, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E324-E325]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ARMS CONTROL IS NOT PASSE

                                 ______


                          HON. ELIZABETH FURSE

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 12, 1996

  Ms. FURSE. Mr. Speaker, I am submitting two excellent editorials to 
the Congressional Record that support adequate funding for the Arms 
Control and Disarmament Agency. These appeared in the March 5 Christian 
Science Monitor and the March 11 Oregonian.
  ACDA is carrying out vital work as we move toward implementing START 
II, completing negotiations on a comprehensive test ban treaty, and 
ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention.
  Ridding the world of weapons of mass destruction is perhaps the most 
important thing we can do to advance the security of the world. I urge 
my colleagues to support a higher funding level for ACDA in the 
continuing resolution the next time it comes before us.

           [From the Christian Science Monitor, Mar. 5, 1996]

                           Fund Arms Control

       Some of the federal government's smallest agencies do some 
     of its most important work.
       One of them is the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency 
     (ACDA), a tiny, 250-person department that conducts 
     negotiations to limit and reduce nuclear, chemical, and 
     biological weapons and verifies compliance with arms-control 
     treaties.
       ACDA has been whipsawed in the budget debate: First, it got 
     caught in Sen. Jesse Helms' misguided attempt to eliminate it 
     and two other foreign-affairs agencies and hand their work 
     over to the State Department. That effort was defeated in the 
     Senate, which passed a State Department authorization bill 
     that includes funding for the other agencies.
       But the upper chamber and the House of Representatives have 
     not yet reconciled conflicting versions of the bill. So ACDA 
     got caught in a continuing resolution that provides it with 
     only 70 percent of the funding it had last fiscal year, and 
     only 47 percent of the funding the administration asked for 
     this year.
       The resolution expires March 15, and ACDA needs an 
     additional $8.7 million--for a final budget of $44.4 
     million--to do its job. ACDA Director John Holum has taken 
     extreme measures to make sure his agency stays within the 
     continuing-resolution funding.
       He has slapped on a hiring freeze, halted use of 
     consultants, banned overtime, put a hold on promotions, and 
     restricted travel. Most vacancies are being left unfilled. 
     Maintenance on ACDA's phones is limited to emergency repairs.
       These measures have allowed the agency to hang on and, so 
     far, fulfill most of its missions. But if Congress doesn't 
     appropriate additional funding for after March 15, several of 
     those missions will be in danger.
       The agency has had to withdraw a key expert who is helping 
     the United Nations ensure that Iraq's Sadaam Hussein doesn't 
     develop nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons.
       ACDA may not have the expertise it needs to complete 
     negotiations on the treaty to ban nuclear testing.
       The agency won't have the personnel to work on ratification 
     of the Chemical Weapons Convention. It already doesn't have 
     the money to send an expert to The Hague to work on 
     inspection procedures that will be required when the accord 
     kicks in.
       It's not only silly, it's dangerous for Congress to 
     appropriate money for B-2 bombers the Pentagon doesn't want 
     and for an untested missile-defense program while at the same 
     time starving the agency that ensures other countries abide 
     by arms-control agreements. The extra money ACDA needs buys a 
     lot of national security at a very low price. Congress should 
     find the funds.
                                  ____


                  [From the Oregonian, Mar. 11, 1996]

Keeping Our Nuclear Guard Up--Congress Should Adequately Fund U.S. Arms 
  Control Agency to Combat Spread of Chemical and Nuclear Weapons to 
                               Terrorists

       Preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction is a 
     high priority for the Clinton administration and should be a 
     concern of all Americans.
       Here's why we should worry:
       China stands accused of transferring nuclear-related 
     technology to Pakistan. It refuses to halt its own tests of 
     nuclear weapons. It is accused by U.S. arms negotiators of 
     throwing up roadblocks in Geneva-based talks aimed at 
     promulgating a global Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. There 
     are indications that China maintains an offensive biological 
     weapons program in violation of international accords.
       The Mayak nuclear complex in Russia is so secret that it 
     didn't show up on maps during the Cold War. Enough plutonium 
     is stored there to make 3,750 bombs. The site is protected by 
     enough soldiers to fight a war. But inside, where 30 metric 
     tons of plutonium are stored, security is so lax that it 
     wouldn't take much effort for an errant worker to steal 
     radioactive material.
       The danger from within--that's the new nuclear nightmare. 
     That's also why the U.S. Senate should ratify the Chemical 
     Weapons Convention treaty, which not only makes chemical 
     weapons illegal, but would make it illegal to stockpile them 
     as well.
       To protect Americans from these threats, Congress needs to 
     spend an estimated $10 million to restore funding for the 
     250-person U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, which is 
     the nation's most effective post-Cold War watchdog. Temporary 
     funding for the agency expires Friday. Indeed, the agency has 
     been so strapped for money that when

[[Page E325]]

     the chemical weapons treaty's inspection procedures were 
     negotiated, agency experts were forced to stay home due to 
     the lack of travel funds.
       The central mission of the U.S. Arms Control and 
     Disarmament Agency is to reduce nuclear stockpiles here and 
     in Russia; to put an end to nuclear testing around the world; 
     and to outlaw poison gas forever. The agency complements the 
     work of the Pentagon by trying to remove the threats to 
     national security through negotiated, verifiable agreements.
       The nature of the nuclear threat has changed since the end 
     of the Cold War. It is difficult to police or detect 
     activity: Witness the mortifying prospect that as little as a 
     kilogram of plutonium or weapon-grade uranium could fall into 
     the hands of terrorists targeting U.S. cities.
       The nation needs an adequately funded arms control agency 
     to minimize these threats.

                          ____________________