John Spratt: “Mr. Chairman, I would have been opposed to the amendment as of yesterday, but we have had a work in progress here and I…”

“Mr. Chairman, I would have been opposed to the amendment as of yesterday, but we have had a work in progress here and I must say we have come up with a very good effort. I commend the gentleman for his efforts. I think he has a good bill. The gentleman is probably more engaged than any member of Congress in either house in trying to bring Russia and the United States closer together. What he has in this bill, the first part of it, is an ambitious agenda dealing with nonproliferation, lab exchanges, visits to our testing sites. What the gentleman has in the first part of the bill is an ambitious agenda of how we can bring Russia and the United States closer together in strategic cooperation. It lays out a number of specifics ranging from nonproliferation efforts to lab exchanges to joint visits to our testing sites, an ambitious agenda but nevertheless all the things we ought to be doing, the whole strategic spectrum. I think it is well stated and well in order, and I think the bill deserves support for that reason alone.”