Presidential Nuclear Disarmament Waiver. This amendment offered by Senator John Warner (R-VA) would replace language in an amendment by Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE) to the 2001 Defense authorization bill. Kerrey\’s amendment would have given the president the power to unilaterally reduce nuclear arms without the approval of Congress. Currently the president must get congressional approval to do so. Warner\’s amendment would give the president the ability to waive the limitation only after the Department of Defense did a nuclear overview study to be completed by December 2001. Although congressional approval should not be circumvented under any circumstances, this late date means that President Clinton would be unable to reduce the number of nuclear weapons on his own, restricting him in his negotiations of an arms deal with Russia.
The Warner amendment to S. 2549 passed the Senate on June 7, 2000 by a vote of 51-47 (Roll Call 119). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
