House Urges Ratification of Nuclear Test Pacts

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on Wednesday night brushed off charges that it has been undercutting U.S. arms negotiators and passed a resolution urging President Reagan to seek Senate approval of two long unratified treaties that ban underground testing of large nuclear bombs.

The 268-148 party-line vote, a symbolic gesture that has no force of law, also calls on Reagan to propose an immediate resumption of talks with the Soviet Union aimed at reaching a comprehensive and mutually verifiable prohibition on all forms of nuclear weapons tests.

Republicans complained that the resolution was designed to embarrass Reagan and that it would strengthen Soviet resistance to U.S. initiatives at the Geneva arms talks. “We’re intruding on what the President and his negotiators are trying to do,’ charged Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.). “. . . How silly, how foolish.”

Demonstration of Sincerity

But backers of the measure insisted that it would help speed the talks by demonstrating American sincerity in achieving an accord. “If you think the arms race is a problem now, then we ought to address it now,” said Rep. Berkley Bedell (D-Iowa), one of the sponsors.

The vote sends the resolution to the Republican-run Senate, where it is unclear whether GOP members will be as adamantly opposed to the resolution as their House colleagues. Two years ago, the Senate voted 77-22 in favor of a non-binding resolution almost identical in language to that approved by the House.

Democrats originally sought to pass the resolution last fall but postponed action after Secretary of State George P. Shultz suggested that the debate might cloud the November summit meeting between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

The Administration, contending there is no way to verify Soviet compliance with a comprehensive test ban, says such an accord should not be sought until after negotiators can reach agreement on slashing present nuclear stockpiles.

1974 and 1976 Treaties

Specifically, the resolution asks Reagan to let the Senate vote on pacts reached with the Soviets in 1974 and 1976 that prohibit underground nuclear explosions greater than 150 kilotons, equivalent to the force of 150,000 tons of TNT and 10 times the destructive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Both countries have pledged to respect the 150,000-ton limit even though the Senate has never voted on ratification. In 1963, however, the Senate did ratify a treaty with the Soviets that bans nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, underwater and in outer space. That pact remains in effect.

In 1977, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union opened talks on a total testing ban, but then-President Jimmy Carter broke off the negotiations three years later, in part to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

With an eye toward the then-pending Reagan-Gorbachev summit, the Soviets announced last July that they would unilaterally suspend underground testing from Aug. 6 through the end of 1985 and would extend the moratorium further if the United States would follow suit. The Reagan Administration has declined to do so, but the Soviets last month announced that their moratorium would remain in effect through March.