[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[October 13, 1999]
[Pages 1768-1769]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on Senate Action on the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty 
and an Exchange With Reporters
October 13, 1999

    The President. Good evening. I am very disappointed that the United 
States Senate voted not to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban 
Treaty. This agreement is critical to protecting the American people 
from the dangers of nuclear war. It is, therefore, well worth fighting 
for. And I assure you, the fight is far from over.
    I want to say to our citizens, and to people all around the world, 
that the United States will stay true to our tradition of global 
leadership against the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The Senate 
has taken us on a detour. But America eventually always returns to the 
main road, and we will do so again. When all is said and done, the 
United States will ratify the test ban treaty.
    Opponents of the treaty have offered no alternative, no other means 
of keeping countries around the world from developing nuclear arsenals 
and threatening our security. So we have to press on and do the right 
thing for our children's future.
    We will press on to strengthen the worldwide consensus in favor of 
the treaty. The United States will continue, under my Presidency, the 
policy we have observed since 1992 of not conducting nuclear tests. 
Russia, China, Britain, and France have joined us in this moratorium. 
Britain and France have done the sensible thing and ratified this 
treaty. I hope not only they, but also Russia, China, will all, along 
with other countries, continue to refrain from nuclear testing.
    I also encourage, strongly, countries that have not yet signed or 
ratified this treaty to do so. And I will continue to press the case 
that this treaty is in the interest of the American people.
    The test ban treaty will restrict the development of nuclear weapons 
worldwide at a time when America has an overwhelming military and 
technological advantage. It will give us the tools to strengthen our 
security, including the global network of sensors to detect nuclear 
tests, the opportunity to demand onsite inspections, and the means to 
mobilize the world against potential violators. All these things, the 
Republican majority in the Senate would gladly give away.
    The Senators who voted against the treaty did more than disregard 
these benefits. They turned aside the best advice--let me say this 
again--they turned aside the best advice of our top military leaders, 
including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and four of his predecessors. They ignored the conclusion 
of 32 Nobel Prize winners in physics, and many other leading scientists, 
including the heads of our nuclear laboratories, that we can maintain a 
strong nuclear force without testing.
    They clearly disregarded the views of the American people who have 
consistently and strongly supported this treaty ever since it was first 
pursued by Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. The American people do not 
want to see unnecessary nuclear tests here or anywhere around the world.
    I know that some Senate Republicans favored this treaty. I know 
others had honest questions but simply didn't have enough time for 
thorough answers. I know that many would have supported this treaty had 
they been free to vote their conscience and if they had been able to do 
what we always do with such treaties, which is to add certain 
safeguards, certain understandings that protect America's interest and 
make clear the meaning of the words.

[[Page 1769]]

    Unfortunately, the Senate majority made sure that no such safeguards 
could be appended. Many who had questions about the treaty worked hard 
to postpone the vote because they knew a defeat would be damaging to 
America's interest and to our role in leading the world away from 
nonproliferation. But for others, we all know that foreign policy, 
national security policy has become just like every domestic issue: 
politics, pure and simple.
    For 2 years, the opponents of this treaty in the Senate refused to 
hold a single hearing. Then they offered a take-or-leave-it deal: to 
decide this crucial security issue in a week, with just 3 days of 
hearings and 24 hours of debate. They rejected my request to delay the 
vote and permit a serious process so that all the questions could be 
evaluated. Even worse, many Republican Senators apparently committed to 
oppose this treaty before there was an agreement to bring it up, before 
they ever heard a single witness or understood the issues. Never before 
has a serious treaty involving nuclear weapons been handled in such a 
reckless and ultimately partisan way.
    The Senate has a solemn responsibility under our Constitution to 
advise and consent in matters involving treaties. The Senate has simply 
not fulfilled that responsibility here. This issue should be beyond 
politics, because the stakes are so high. We have a fundamental 
responsibility to do everything we can to limit the spread of nuclear 
weapons and the chance of nuclear war. We must decide whether we're 
going to meet it.
    Will we ratify an agreement that can keep Russia and China from 
testing and developing new, more sophisticated advanced weapons; an 
agreement that could help constrain nuclear weapons programs in India, 
Pakistan, and elsewhere, at a time of tremendous volatility, especially 
on the Indian sub-continent? For now, the Senate has said, no.
    But I am sending a different message. We want to limit the nuclear 
threat. We want to bring the test ban treaty into force.
    I am profoundly grateful to the Senate proponents of this treaty, 
including the brave Republicans who stood with us, for their 
determination and their leadership. I am grateful to all those advocates 
for arms control and national security and all the religious leaders who 
have joined us in this struggle.
    The test ban treaty is strongly in America's interest. It is still 
on the Senate calendar. It will not go away. It must not go away. I 
believe that if we have a fair and thorough hearing process, the 
overwhelming majority of the American people will still agree with us 
that this treaty is in our interest. I believe in the wisdom of the 
American people, and I am confident that in the end, it will prevail.
    Q. Mr. President, when you say the fight is far from over, sir, do 
you mean that you expect this treaty to be brought up again during your 
term in office?
    The President. I mean, I think that we could have had a regular 
hearing process in which the serious issues that need to be discussed 
would have been discussed, and in which, as the Senate leaders both 
agreed yesterday when they thought there was an agreement and they shook 
hands on an agreement, would have resulted in next year being devoted to 
considering the treaty, dealing with its merits, and then, barring 
extraordinary circumstances, would have put off a vote until the 
following year.
    By their actions today the Republican majority has said they want us 
to continue to discuss and debate this. They weren't interested in the 
safeguards; they weren't interested in a serious debate; they weren't 
interested in a serious process. So they could have put this on a track 
to be considered in an appropriate way, which I strongly supported. They 
decided otherwise.
    And we, therefore, have to make it clear, those of us who agree, 
that it is crazy for America to walk away from Britain and France, 11 of 
our NATO Allies, the heads of our nuclear labs, the Joint Chiefs of 
Staff, 32 Nobel laureates, and the whole world, having depended on us 
for all these decades, to lead the fight for nonproliferation. 
Therefore, we have to keep this issue alive and continue to argue it in 
the strongest and most forceful terms.
    I wish we could have had a responsible alternative. I worked until 
the 11th hour to achieve it. This was a political deal. And I hope it 
will get the treatment from the American people it richly deserves.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:37 p.m. on the South Grounds at the White 
House.