Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to adopt a resolution providing for conditional ratification of the Convention on the Prohibition of Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction by the United States.

Highlights:

• Requires the President to notify all signatories of the Convention of the right of the Senate to give advice to the Convention and consent to ratification, subject to reservations.

• Further requires the President to submit an annual report to the Congress identifying all financial arrangements with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

• States that no U.S. intelligence may be provided to the OPCW without first going through proper certification by the Director of Central Intelligence.

• Acknowledges that the collapse of the "Australia Group" could interfere with the purpose and objective of the Convention and requests that the group remain a prominent and efficient mechanism for limiting the creation and proliferation of chemical and biological weapons.

• Affirms the dominance of the U.S. Constitution over anything in the Convention.

• Prevents the President from providing chemical defense assistance, with specified exceptions, to any state or party that is not eligible for such assistance under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

• Prohibits laboratory samples collected in the United States from being transferred outside the United States for the purposes of analysis.

• Limits U.S. annual contribution to the OPCW to $25 million until the year 2000.

Full Bill Text

Full Bill Text