John Spratt: “I voted for this bill when it passed the House. I thought the parts of it I objected to would be cured in conference.…”

“I voted for this bill when it passed the House. I thought the parts of it I objected to would be cured in conference. Some were, some were not. So I decided reluctantly to vote against the conference report, and today I vote reluctantly to sustain the veto. I want to address the very provisions that the gentleman just in the well took up, namely, the parts of the bill to which the President objected and singled out that deal with ballistic missile defense and the ABM Treaty. This year, Mr. Speaker, each House adopted in the authorization bill what amounts to a special chapter devoted solely to ballistic missile defense and the ABM Treaty. In the Senate, this chapter was painstakingly worked out, and in the end it represented a compromise that almost everyone agreed to, the Clinton administration included. The Senate vote in favor of it was overwhelming: 85 to 13. So in conference, on the Democratic side, we offered a straightforward, simple, efficient solution. We said we would take the Senate provisions in toto, completely. Now in 12 years of going to defense conferences, this is the first that I can recall where the House conferees or some of us said to the Senate, we will buy your language lock, stock, and barrel, only to have the Senate conferees say to us, sorry, it is not for sale anymore.”