[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 142 (Friday, October 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H12297]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           ANNIVERSARY OF ARMS CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT AGENCY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Obey] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I just want to take note of the fact that this 
is a significant anniversary for the Arms Control and Disarmament 
Agency. That agency has been crucial in making progress on a number of 
fronts that affect the national interests of the United States.
  Thirty-three years ago, at the height of the cold war, President 
Kennedy announced in a speech at American University in Washington that 
talks would begin shortly in Moscow on a comprehensive nuclear test ban 
treaty.
  This week at the United Nations, President Clinton became the first 
leader to sign the treaty. He said he was proud that after all this 
time the signatures of the world's nuclear powers and the vast majority 
of its other nations would ``immediately create an international norm 
against nuclear testing, even before the treaty formally enters into 
force.''
  During all of those years, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency 
[ACDA] has worked tirelessly to bring some sanity to the escalation in 
the number of weapons of mass destruction. Today, as it observes its 
35th anniversary I would like to congratulate the Agency and its 
director, John D. Holum.
  Despite the recent success, Holum points out that the dismantling of 
the Soviet-American arms race has been overshadowed by ``a danger 
perhaps even more ominous: Proliferation of weapons of mass 
destruction--whether nuclear, chemical or biological, or the missiles 
to deliver them--to rogue regimes and terrorists around the world.''
  To his credit, President Clinton has said repeatedly that he is 
determined to pursue ``the most ambitious agenda to dismantle and fight 
the spread of weapons of mass destruction since the dawn of the nuclear 
age.''
  On this 35th anniversary, we would all do well to remember that there 
is no more important task than to continue to try to control these 
horrible weapons of mass destruction.

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