Senate Agrees To Vote On Chemical Weapons Ban Clinton Pushed For Ratification Of Global Accord For 4 Years

The Senate voted Thursday to impose tough penalties on anyone dealing with chemical weapons and unanimously agreed to vote on ratification of a global poison gas treaty next week.

Democrats dismissed the penalty bill, passed 53-44 on a nearly party-line vote, as unnecessary. Some treaty opponents touted it as an alternative to the sweeping accord ratified by 72 nations that aims to rid the world of chemical weapons.

The agreement to vote on the treaty followed four years of efforts by the Clinton administration to get Senate consent to ratification. Its acceptance, however, remained in doubt as the Senate also agreed to take up five amendments, any of which the White House said would kill U.S. participation in the pact.

“This treaty literally was ‘made in America’ and it also is right for America,” said President Clinton in praising Senate Republican and Democratic leaders for agreeing to schedule the ratification vote.

Late agreement between White House negotiators and Senate Republican leaders on two issues - requiring search warrants for foreign inspectors and ensuring the treaty would not affect the use of tear gas - sealed the deal for a vote next week, said Robert Bell, National Security Council senior defense adviser.

Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., who had been blocking a vote on the treaty, raised a fist in triumph as agreement to take up his objections was reached on the Senate floor.

Treaty proponents have to get a two-thirds majority to ratify.

The final vote is set for April 24, just five days before the treaty takes effect.

On the bill passed Thursday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut was the only Democrat voting for it.

The bill sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., would set fines and prison terms for anyone acquiring, possessing, transferring or using chemical or biological weapons.

It would provide for the death penalty if violations led to loss of life and would require $100,000 fines for all violations.

No penalties now exist, said Kyl, even though the United States is destroying all its chemical weapons stockpiles.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said it would actually weaken existing laws in some areas.

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said he saw no need for it and criticized the process that brought the measure to a vote with little serious consideration less than a month after it was introduced.

The treaty imposes a global ban on use, production, transfer or stockpiling of poison gas and other chemical weapons and sets up international inspections and sanctions. Administration officials say lack of ratification would keep the United States off the treaty’s governing council and bar American experts from inspection teams.

Meanwhile, the Clinton administration continued its push for treaty ratification.

Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday, “Our troops will be safer with this convention than without it … The chemical weapons treaty makes great sense to me, the other Joint Chiefs, and the combatant commanders.”