CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND DECLARATIONS CONCERNING ARMS CONTROL NEGOTIATIONS

SEC. 904. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND DECLARATIONS CONCERNING ARMS CONTROL NEGOTIATIONS (a) Congressional Findings.— The Congress makes the following findings: (1) The United States and the Soviet Union are currently engaged in negotiations to conclude a treaty on intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) and are continuing serious negotiations on other issues of vital importance to the national security of the United States. (2) The current negotiations, which reflect delicate compromises on both sides, are a culmination of years of detailed and complex negotiations in which the negotiators for the United States have been pursuing a policy consistently advocated by the past two Presidents regarding nuclear arms control in the European theater. (3) While recognizing fully that the President, under clause 2, section 2, article II of the Constitution, has the power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, the Congress also recognizes the special responsibility conferred by the Founding Fathers on the Senate in requiring that it give its advice and consent before a treaty may be ratified by the United States and that in carrying out this responsibility the Senate is accountable to the people of the United States and has a duty to ensure that no treaty is ratified which would be detrimental to the welfare and security of the United States. (4) In recognition of this responsibility, the Senate has established a special continuing oversight body, the Arms Control Observer Group, which over the last two and one-half years has 101 STAT. 1138 functioned to provide advice and counsel to the President and his negotiators, when appropriate, on a continuing basis during the course of the negotiations to achieve an INF treaty. (5) The Senate and the President both have a role under the Constitution in the making of treaties and Congress as a whole has a role under the Constitution in the regulating of expenditures, including expenditures for weapons systems that may be the subject of treaty negotiations. (b) Congressional Declarations.—In light of the findings in subsection (a), Congress— (1) fully supports the efforts of the President to negotiate stabilizing, equitable, and verifiable arms reduction treaties with the Soviet Union; (2) endorses the principle of mutuality and reciprocity in arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union and cautions that neither the Congress nor the President should take actions which are unilateral concessions to the Soviet Union; and (3) urges the President to take care that no provision is agreed to in those negotiations that would be harmful to the security of the United States or its allies and friends. (c) Declaration of the Senate.—The Senate declares that it will reserve judgment regarding the approval of any arms control treaty until it has conducted a thorough examination of the provisions of the treaty and has assured itself that those provisions— (1) are effectively verifiable; and (2) serve to enhance the strength and security of the United States and its allies and friends.