Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. RISCH. Mr. President and fellow Senators, what we are going to do is, tomorrow, at noon, we are going to start with amendment No. 4839. Amendment No. 4839 deals with the relationship between strategic weapons, which this treaty deals with, and tactical weapons, which this treaty does not deal with but should. That is essentially the purpose of this amendment.

I think virtually everyone who is involved in this debate has an opinion on this, No. 1. But almost everyone agrees that the issue of tactical weapons, namely, short-range weapons, is a very serious issue and rises to at least the level of the discussion on strategic weapons, and perhaps even more so.

So tomorrow we are going to have a spirited discussion about those issues. There has actually been quite a bit of debate already on this, and for those of you who are like me, and you take the Congressional Record home and read it in the evening, if you go back and look at the debates on the various treaties that dealt with nuclear weapons treaties, you will see that some very bright people, some of whom are still Members of this body, have already spoken on this issue.

I am looking forward to having this discussion tomorrow.

With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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