Mike Levin: “I voted to table the McCain amendment because I believe it undermines the agreement we have in place with North Korea…”

“I voted to table the McCain amendment because I believe it undermines the agreement we have in place with North Korea that is designed to denuclearize North Korea. This could effectively give North Korea an excuse to produce plutonium that it could use for nuclear weapons, which would be absolutely contrary to our most basic national security interests. The McCain amendment would add a requirement for a certification relative to North Korea that would undermine the Agreed Framework that has frozen North Korea's nuclear weapons plutonium production program, because it would change the terms of that agreement. Before any of the fiscal year 1999 funds for implementation of that Agreed Framework could be spent, the McCain amendment would require the President to certify that North Korea is essentially denuclearized, which is not yet the case but which is the very goal of the Agreed Framework.”