Jeff Bingaman: “I believe very firmly that this is an issue which has been hanging around the Senate for too long. We have had many--in…”

“I believe very firmly that this is an issue which has been hanging around the Senate for too long. We have had many--in fact, years of consideration. We have had, I believe, 14 hearings now on the Chemical Weapons Convention. The convention was supported, of course, by the previous administration. President Bush signed the agreement. We need now in this administration, the second Clinton administration, to go ahead and ratify it. There is an important date coming up which is the 29th of April, which is the date by which we need to take action. A failure to ratify by April 29 will have significant adverse consequences for our security and for U.S. businesses as well. Our ability to oversee the first critical days and months of implementation of the treaty will be lost.”