John Kerry: “last September the Senate approved an amendment offered by Senator Brown that allowed the administration to deliver…”

“last September the Senate approved an amendment offered by Senator Brown that allowed the administration to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military equipment to Pakistan. In doing so, we decided to ignore Pakistan's continuing efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles to carry them, and we turned our backs on United States non-proliferation law and international arms control agreements. Today, I am pleased to cosponsor a bill being introduced by Senator Pressler that will repeal this misguided provision and will help put U.S. nonproliferation policy back on track. During Senate consideration of the Brown amendment, the proponents, including the administration, argued that transferring the military equipment would remove what had become an irritant in our relations with Pakistan and would result in enhanced cooperation on nonproliferation issues. Unfortunately, the opposite has happened. Even as we debated the Brown amendment we had clear and convincing evidence that Pakistan had received M-11 ballistic missiles from China--a sanctionable offense under the Missile Technology Control Regime. We now know that Pakistan also has continued to pursue its Nuclear Weapons Program.”