[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 110 (Friday, July 30, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1706]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE ACT OF 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. CURT WELDON

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 30, 1999

  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, last week the President 
signed H.R. 4, the National Missile Defense Act of 1999, into law. This 
measure unequivocally states that it is the policy of the United States 
to deploy a national missile defense system as soon as it is 
technologically feasible. In signing the bill, the President has at 
long last acknowledged that the missile threat that he has so long 
denied, and the need to defend against it.
  Mr. Speaker, there was no signing ceremony, no fanfare, not even a 
press conference announcing this significant action. Unfortunately, 
there is a reason the President chose to downplay this event. In 
characteristic style, he is already trying to redefine the meaning of 
this law. The ink on the bill was not dry when the President released a 
statement noting that the ``legislation makes clear that no decision on 
deployment has been made. . . . Next year, we will, for the first time, 
determine whether to deploy a limited national missile defense . . .'' 
This is Orwellian. The President signs a bill that says that it is our 
policy to deploy a national missile defense, and in the same breath 
says that a decision to deploy will be made next year. It would be 
comical if the stakes were not so high.
  I guess we should not be surprised anymore. The President has already 
successfully redefined the word ``is,'' and once again it provides him 
with a convenient escape hatch. Perhaps we should have reconsidered the 
use of that word in our policy statement before submitting it to the 
President, because he has already made it clear that to him, ``is'' 
does not always mean ``is.'' But most people understand that when we 
say it is the policy of the United States to deploy a national missile 
defense, that the decision to deploy has been made. The question is not 
whether to deploy, only when. And contrary to the President's 
interpretation, Congress was clear on this point.
  Before the House voted on this measure, both the original bill and 
the conference report, I called on my colleagues to vote against this 
bill if they agreed with the President that we should hold off the 
decision on whether to deploy, and told those who agreed with moving 
forward with that decision now to vote for it. There was considerable 
discussion about whether we could deploy a system now. It was 
repeatedly noted that the bill was not mandating when to deploy, it was 
simply stating that the decision was being made to do so as soon as it 
is technologically feasible. Similar debate ensure in the Senate.
  This time, the President says that Congress itself has qualified that 
it ``is'' the policy to deploy. He argues that the bill language 
subjecting deployment to the authorizations and appropriations process 
means that no decision has been made. That argument is a Trojan horse, 
because all policy decisions are subject to the authorization and 
appropriations process. He further argues that the bill's language 
supporting continued reductions in strategic nuclear arms means that 
the decision must account for arms control and nuclear nonproliferation 
objectives. Congress said nothing of the sort, and made absolutely no 
linkage of these objectives.
  Mr. Speaker, no amount of tortured linguistics by this President or 
anyone else can change the legislative record. We were clear that 
passage of this bill would formalize U.S. policy to deploy a national 
missile defense system, and it was overwhelmingly adopted in both 
bodies. It is time for the President to stop rewriting the dictionary, 
and get down to the business of executing the law and ensuring the 
security of this nation.

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