[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 110 (Thursday, August 6, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H7403]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MISSILE DEFENSE

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, we are now living in a world where missile 
technology is proliferating and the risk of missile attack is 
increasing each and every day. The United States should be working to 
eliminate restrictions on the development and deployment of a national 
missile defense system.
  Unfortunately, the President and his administration have sought to 
expand the restrictions and block U.S. missile defense programs. Just 
last year at the United Nations, a delegation led by our Secretary of 
State signed three agreements that dealt with the 1972 ABM treaty. 
Those U.N. agreements threaten America's national security and 
perpetuate America's vulnerability to a missile attack.
  While this administration along with four independent states of the 
former Soviet Union agreed to these restrictions, the remaining 11 
states in the former Soviet Union would be free to develop tests and 
deploy ABM systems. Yes, that is right, they can develop an ABM system, 
but we cannot.
  I ask you, Mr. Speaker, why would this administration limit the 
United States in a program of a missile defense system while enabling 
others to have it? I believe that those are our rights and freedoms. As 
far as I am concerned they are not negotiable.
  The citizens of this Nation deserve the best defense we can provide, 
not a backroom deal that endangers our national security.

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