Political Quotes

“the people of Oregon have firsthand knowledge of the dangers of chemical weapons. Stored at the chemical weapons depot at Umatilla in the eastern part of my State are millions of pounds of chemical weapons. Mustard gas and nerve gas sit in concrete bunkers, a constant reminder of the need for action. We see and hear constant news reports about the dangers facing children in eastern Oregon every day those weapons sit in those stockpiles. There is no place in a civilized society for terror weapons like these, and it is not right to have stockpiles of these weapons that put our children at risk. Passing the Chemical Weapons Convention is the most important vote in this Congress for a safer future for our children. This is a time in my view for the United States to lead rather than to retreat. When Presidents Reagan and Bush negotiated this treaty, they fully understood that U.S. leadership was needed to complete it. They knew that full U.S. participation was essential for its work. Not only will failure to ratify this convention put us in the position of being followers on the world's stage but the provisions built into this treaty to isolate and in fact economically punish those nations which refuse to ratify the treaty are going to apply to the United States if the Senate does not ratify this treaty.”