Political Quotes

“The Convention bans the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons. It includes detailed verification provisions. It was negotiated in the Reagan and Bush administrations and was based largely on a text personally presented to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva by then Vice President Bush. The convention represents a significant advance beyond the only existing constraint on chemical weapons, the 1929 Geneva Protocol, which only bans the use of such weapons in war. I personally favor very much ratification of the treaty. I reached that judgment following extensive hearings I chaired in 1994 while chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Additional hearings have been held this year under the chairmanship of the Senator from North Carolina [Mr. Helms], and, as a result, the Committee has been able to consider a broad range of issues and, in my view, resolve them quite satisfactorily. The Clinton administration strongly supports the treaty as settled upon during the Bush administration.”