DATE=10/12/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON-TEST BAN (L)
NUMBER=2-254932
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:


INTRO:  As the Senate held its final debate on the 
nuclear test-ban treaty, President Clinton was still 
holding out against a Republican demand that he appeal 
for the treaty to be taken off the Senate agenda until 
after he leaves office. V-O-A's David Gollust has 
details from the White House.

TEXT: Mr. Clinton met a key Republican condition 
Monday with his letter to Senate Majority Leader Trent 
Lott asking him postpone action on the treaty. But he 
will not give in to the Republican demand that he 
request - in writing -- that the treaty be shelved 
until after he leaves office in 2001.

It was evident before the climactic debate began that 
the treaty -- banning all nuclear tests -- stood no 
chance of getting the two-thirds Senate vote needed 
for ratification. The White House was hoping that 
treaty supporters would be able to muster a simple 
majority to take the treaty off the agenda without any 
specific time frame for re-consideration.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters that 
both a treaty defeat - and a postponement until 2001 - 
would send the wrong message about the American 
commitment to nuclear non-proliferation.

            /// LOCKHART ACTUALITY ///

      They both send the wrong message to the rest of 
      the world. And if we say that under no 
      circumstances, no matter what happens in the 
      world could we possibly take this up - even if 
      it was a situation where U-S leadership was 
      desperately need in some place in the world - I 
      think that sends the wrong message.

            /// END ACT ///

Aides to the President say ratification of the treaty 
would be unlikely in the heat of next year's election 
campaign  --even if Democrats succeed in their 
procedural gambit. But it would at least spare Mr. 
Clinton - who was the first world leader to sign the 
treaty - a major political embarrassment.

In his letter to Senator Lott Monday, Mr. Clinton 
acknowledged the heavy opposition to the treaty but 
said an early vote and its likely defeat would 
"severely harm" national security, damage relations 
with allies, and undermine four decades of U-S 
leadership in arms control.

The White House wants a much longer period of hearings 
and debate on the treaty than the 9 days that were 
allocated by Senate leaders, in order to give the 
Administration more time to try to win over the votes 
of moderate Republicans who have supported other arms 
control agreements in the past. (Signed)

NEB/DAG/gm



12-Oct-1999 15:08 PM EDT (12-Oct-1999 1908 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.