Senate Panel Approves INF Treaty, 17-2

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday resoundingly endorsed the landmark U.S.-Soviet treaty outlawing ground-launched medium-range nuclear weapons and sent it to the Senate floor, where supporters expect to see it approved before the upcoming summit meeting between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

The vote of 17 to 2 followed 21 days of hearings and debate and set the stage for ratification of the first formal nuclear arms accord between Washington and Moscow since 1972. Signed by Reagan and Gorbachev last December, the pact bans an entire class of weapons and mandates on-site inspections by both sides to verify compliance.

Calling the agreement “a small step away from the nuclear brink,” Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) predicted that critics will muster no more than 10 or 12 opposing votes on the Senate floor, falling far short of blocking approval. A two-thirds majority is required for ratification.

Moments before the vote, committee Chairman Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.) declared that the agreement reverses “the elevator of nuclear escalation that has been going on for the past 30 or 40 years.”

Despite the euphoria at seeing the treaty over its first hurdle, senators took note of clouds still on the horizon. Republicans were furious over language written into the agreement by Democrats demanding airtight assurance that its interpretation cannot be changed in the future. And left unresolved in the minds of some is whether the agreement bans weapons still undeveloped.

Debate on the Senate floor is expected to begin soon after Congress returns from next week’s Easter recess. Pell predicted that a final vote could come two to three weeks later.

The timing will be somewhat dependent on Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), the treaty’s chief foe. Helms failed in several attempts to amend the agreement during committee deliberations, then put aside the remainder of more than 30 proposed changes.

Renewed Efforts Planned

Helms, who along with Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) voted against the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in the committee, said Wednesday that he will renew his efforts to modify it on the floor.

Pressler is demanding that the treaty be made contingent on a presidential certification that conventional forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact countries have been brought into parity.

Asked how long he would prolong his battle to attach “killer” amendments, Helms replied, “How long is a piece of string?”

Both Pell and Cranston said they consider it important to push ahead with ratification before the Moscow summit meeting is held in late May. It would be both an embarrassment and an impediment to the President, Cranston said, if Reagan goes to his fourth meeting with the Soviet leader with the treaty still pending.

Although Democrats and Republicans alike hailed the treaty as a historic moment in arms control deliberations, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) cautioned that its true importance is still to be determined.

“It is historic, it is momentous, and it opens a window of opportunity,” Kerry said, “but the key is where we go from here.”

The agreement requires that all ground-launched missiles with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles be dismantled.

Documents supporting the treaty show that the Soviets will rid themselves of 1,752 missiles, deployed and in storage, compared to 859 for the United States.

Chief among the weapons being dismantled by the Soviets are some 650 mobile SS-20s, each capable of delivering three warheads. Much of the debate during hearings by both the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees revolved around the assertion that the Soviets could have a hidden SS-20 force and thus could readily cheat.