The Senate on Wednesday rejected a treaty banning all underground nuclear testing in a 48-51 vote that crushed one of President Clinton's major foreign policy goals.
The vote on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, largely along party lines, failed to gain a simple majority, let alone the two-thirds vote needed for ratification. It gave conservative Republicans a victory after a week-long power play among Senate Republicans, Democrats and the White House over a proposal to forestall the defeat of the treaty by delaying action until after President Clinton left office.
In a last-ditch effort to save the treaty, Clinton called the Republican leader, Trent Lott, two hours before the vote and asked that he delay action for national security reasons. In a blunt rebuff, Lott said the president had offered too little, too late, and he pushed ahead with an action that he knew would humiliate Clinton.
This was the first time the Senate had defeated a major international security pact since the Treaty of Versailles, creating the League of Nations, failed to win Senate approval in 1920. While the Senate and White House often joust on legislation governing domestic issues, senators of both parties usually defer to the president in matters of national security.
After the vote, Clinton, speaking on the White House lawn, denounced the rejection by the Senate as a "reckless" and "partisan" act, and said that he would continue to pursue a ban on testing. "I assure you the fight is far from over," he said. "When all is said and done, the United States will ratify the treaty."
"No constitutional obligation has been treated so cavalierly, so casually, as this treaty," said Senator Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader.
The failure of the treaty to clear the Senate raised serious questions about its survival. Supporters in Washington and abroad had contended that if it was not adopted by the US, other nations with nuclear capability, ranging from Pakistan and India to Russia and China, would follow suit, denying the 1996 treaty the 44 ratifications it needs to go into force. The leaders of Britain, France and Germany had urged the Senate to postpone the vote.
Russia accused the US yesterday of undermining international stability by rejecting the treaty.
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