[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 7 (Monday, February 16, 1998)]
[Page 246]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Letter to Congressional Leaders Transmitting the Annual Certification of 
the Nuclear Weapons Stockpile

February 11, 1998

Dear __________:

    In my September 22, 1997, message to the Senate transmitting the 
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) for advice and consent to 
ratification, I announced that I would provide to the appropriate 
committees of Congress the annual certification of the nuclear weapons 
stockpile by the Secretaries of Defense and Energy and accompanying 
report. Attached is a copy of that certification and report.
    I am pleased to note the Secretaries' conclusion that the nuclear 
stockpile has no safety or reliability concerns that require underground 
testing at this time. Problems that have arisen in the stockpile are 
being addressed and resolved without underground nuclear testing to 
ensure the stockpile remains safe and reliable. In reaching this 
conclusion, the Secretaries obtained the advice of the Directors of the 
National Weapons Laboratories, the Commander in Chief, United States 
Strategic Command, and the Nuclear Weapons Council.
    Sincerely,
                                            William J. Clinton

Note: Identical letters were sent to Albert Gore, Jr., President of the 
Senate; President pro tempore of the Senate Strom Thurmond, chairman, 
and Carl Levin, ranking member, Senate Committee on Armed Services; 
Trent Lott, Senate majority leader; Thomas A. Daschle, Senate minority 
leader; Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House of Representatives; Richard 
A. Gephardt, House minority leader; Jesse Helms, chairman, and Joseph R. 
Biden, Jr., ranking member, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; 
Benjamin A. Gilman, chairman, and Lee Hamilton, ranking member, House 
Committee on International Relations; and Floyd Spence, chairman, and 
Ike Skelton, ranking member, House Committee on National Security. This 
letter was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on February 12.