Pub. L. 100-463, tit. VIII, sec. 8123

Sec. 8123. Whereas the Congress supports the President’s goal of reducing United States and Soviet conventional forces in Europe and reducing United States and Soviet strategic nuclear forces; Whereas it is important the Congress and the President be in agreement on United States national security goals and objectives in order for the United States to be in the strongest possible position to negotiate with the Soviet Union future reductions in conventional and strategic nuclear forces; Whereas the Congress strongly opposes the undercutting of these arms reduction negotiations by either the United States or the Soviet Union through unnecessary military initiatives or counter-productive arms control proposals; Whereas no decision has been made on the development or deployment of strategic defenses: Therefore, it is the sense of the Congress that— (1) in order to maintain the basis for strong deterrence, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) should be a long-term and robust research program to provide the United States with expanded options for responding to a Soviet breakout from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and to respond to other future Soviet arms initiatives that might pose a grave threat to United States national security; 102 STAT. 2270–41 (2) by expanding potential United States strategic options the SDI research program can enhance United States leverage in the United States45oviet arms reduction negotiations and serve as a safeguard for ensuring that negotiated agreements are kept; (3) future research plans and budgets for SDI must be established using realistic projections of available resources in the overall defense budget and must not undercut other important Department of Defense programs; and (4) in matching research priorities against available re-sources, the primary emphasis of SDI should be to explore promising new technologies, such as directed energy technologies, which might have long-term potential to defend against a responsive Soviet offensive nuclear threat.