[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 51 (Thursday, April 30, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3843-S3844]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Executive Amendment No. 2321

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There will now be 2 minutes of debate, equally 
divided, on amendment No. 2321 offered by Mr. Moynihan of New York.
  The Senator from New York is recognized.
  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, in the foreseeable future the central 
strategic object of the United States and the world will be that of 
controlling the spread of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons in 
the Near East, in

[[Page S3844]]

South Asia, in East Asia, and the control of them in Russia itself.
  If we can have the cooperation, however tacit, of the Russian 
Government in these affairs, we have great hopes and possibilities. If 
we were to have their hostility, their opposition, it could be ruinous 
to the world. We are talking about nuclear war and biological and 
chemical war. That, in my view, is what is at issue in this decision we 
are about to make and the amendment I have offered.
  I thank the Chair for its courteous attention.
  Mr. BIDEN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware is recognized.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, there is absolutely no evidence today that 
expanding NATO to include Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary would 
do anything to exacerbate the problem we all are concerned about--the 
proliferation of nuclear capability.
  The truth is, notwithstanding the knowledge on the part of Russia 
that we are going to expand, they continue to destroy their nuclear 
weapons under the Nunn-Lugar agreement, they have endorsed and have 
ratified the CWC agreement, and they have committed to take up the 
START II agreement. Nothing we have done relative to expansion has any 
negative impact on the continued cooperation between the United States 
and Russia to deal with the threat of nuclear warfare.
  I respectfully suggest that to vote for this amendment turns over the 
future of what we think the defense architecture of Europe should be to 
an organization of which we are not a part, and that is the EU. It says 
that no one can join NATO unless they are first a member of the EU. Why 
would we turn our fate over to an organization of which we are not a 
member? I urge my colleagues to vote no on this amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The yeas and nays have been ordered.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  The result was announced--yeas 17, nays 83, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 111 Ex.]

                                YEAS--17

     Ashcroft
     Bumpers
     Craig
     Harkin
     Hutchinson
     Inhofe
     Jeffords
     Kempthorne
     Leahy
     Moynihan
     Murray
     Smith (NH)
     Specter
     Torricelli
     Warner
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                                NAYS--83

     Abraham
     Akaka
     Allard
     Baucus
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Breaux
     Brownback
     Bryan
     Burns
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Cleland
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Conrad
     Coverdell
     D'Amato
     Daschle
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Faircloth
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Frist
     Glenn
     Gorton
     Graham
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Hatch
     Helms
     Hollings
     Hutchison
     Inouye
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Moseley-Braun
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Reed
     Reid
     Robb
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Roth
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith (OR)
     Snowe
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
  The amendment (No. 2321) was rejected.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. STEVENS. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.