Senate Democrats Unenthusiastic About Byrd’s Effort to Ratify Two Arms Treaties

Senate Democrats, clearly divided on arms control issues, Thursday demonstrated a lack of enthusiasm for Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd’s effort to ratify two minor arms control treaties negotiated in the 1970s by Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford.

Only four Democrats attended a meeting in which the Senate Foreign Relations Committee decided by voice vote to refer the treaties to the Senate floor, where they are expected to meet strong opposition from Republicans. A committee source said that a number of Democrats on the committee had chosen to boycott the vote.

Liberal Democrats and other arms control advocates have resisted the ratification effort being spearheaded by Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, because they do not support an accompanying statement calling on the President to negotiate better verification procedures with the Soviet Union. They contend that verification procedures are sufficient and that any effort to renegotiate them would threaten the treaty.

Needed for Ratification

But without such a statement, the treaties are unlikely to get the necessary two-thirds support needed for Senate ratification.

“I happen to believe they were verifiable when Mr. Nixon signed them and when Mr. Ford signed them,” said Sen. Brock Adams (D-Wash.), one of four Democrats who was present for the committee vote.

Byrd and his Democratic supporters on the issue, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn of Georgia, argue that ratification of the treaties is “a first step toward putting the United States on the offensive on arms control.”

The dispute threatens to undermine the Democrats’ first major legislative step this year on the issue of arms control, which many party members are hoping will be a key element in the party’s efforts to reclaim the White House in 1988.

Byrd, who hailed the vote as “a victory for arms control,” said that he is waiting for President Reagan to express support for the two treaties--the Threshold Test Ban Treaty, signed in 1974, and the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty, signed in 1976. Without Reagan’s support, he has said, the treaties cannot be ratified.

The two treaties would limit all American and Soviet underground nuclear tests to no more than 150 kilotons, or the equivalent of a blast of about 150,000 tons of TNT. Aides indicated that Byrd intends to bring the treaties up for a floor vote along with a statement of “reservation,” also approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by voice vote, stipulating that neither pact could take effect until the Soviets agree to specific verification procedures, including on-site inspection.

Alternative Opposed

Byrd is known to oppose an alternative proposal authored by Republican Sens. Nancy Landon Kassebaum of Kansas and Daniel J. Evans of Washington that would express support for the treaties but withhold ratification until the verification procedures have been worked out with the Kremlin. The Kassebaum-Evans resolution was the only measure approved unanimously by the committee on Thursday--an indication that it could have more support in the Senate than the Democrats’ proposal.

A Democratic committee source predicted that Byrd would be forced to accept the Kassebaum-Evans alternative resolution because “we don’t even have the support of all 55 Democrats in the Senate, and we can’t pass anything without at least 12 Republican votes.”

Helms Amendment

Meanwhile, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is expected to further complicate matters by offering an amendment that would require the Senate to vote on the unratified 1979 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty at the same time it votes on these two.

On Thursday, Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) condemned the move by Helms in advance as an effort that would “constitute a misleading vote against the SALT II ceilings when, in fact, a majority of the Senate is on record supporting U.S.-Soviet adherence to these important SALT II numerical limits.”

“Even a procedural vote on the SALT II treaty could be misunderstood by friends and adversaries abroad--threatening harm to America’s international interests,” he added.

‘Very Small Aspect’

Cranston, who supports continued adherence to SALT II, was among the liberal Democrats who did not show up for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote on the two lesser treaties. In his speech before the committee earlier in the day, he noted that many members of the committee “are disappointed that the two nuclear testing treaties address only a very small aspect of the nuclear issue.”

The President submitted the two testing treaties for Senate ratification earlier this year to fulfill a promise that he made to Democrats last October just hours before the start of the U.S.-Soviet summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. In exchange for his pledge, Democrats abandoned pro-arms control legislation that the White House feared would embarrass Reagan during his face-off with the Soviets.