J. Exon: “Mr. President, the Exon-Hatfield amendment then, if I can repeat that again, is a very simple and straightforward one.…”

“Mr. President, the Exon-Hatfield amendment then, if I can repeat that again, is a very simple and straightforward one. It will delete section 3135 of the bill in its entirety and remove the $50 million authorization for hydronuclear testing that the Senator from Oregon has addressed in a very eloquent fashion. Our amendment makes no adjustment to the funding for either the stockpile stewardship program or the overall Energy Department budget. Our amendment is funding neutral. It simply removes the authorization in the bill to use $50 million to resume nuclear weapons testing, and the reasons for removing that and not doing it have been adequately addressed already by my colleague from Oregon and the junior Senator from New Mexico. Three years ago, as was alluded to by Senator Hatfield, a strong bipartisan coalition in both Houses of Congress twice approved a plan to phase out nuclear weapons testing and give the moribund comprehensive test ban negotiations a shot in the arm. Successful negotiation of a global comprehensive test ban treaty would significantly advance the cause of nuclear weapons proliferation by denying those nations tempted to develop nuclear capability the means to prove out their weapons. Getting that done, in the view of this Senator, is absolutely essential.”