House Joins Ban on Nuclear Tests; Collider Funds May Prevent Veto
WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to reverse President Bush’s policy on nuclear weapons testing, imposing strict conditions on the underground blasts and ending them in 1997.
On a 224-151 vote, lawmakers adopted a Senate provision that had been the subject of earlier Administration veto threats.
But a senior Republican source said that the White House had decided Thursday to reverse course and accept the restrictions--in part because Democrats had attached them to a bill that also contains money for a massive science project in Texas, a state important to Bush’s reelection bid.
The presence of the project, the superconducting super collider, made it politically untenable for Bush to veto the bill, which provides money for energy and water projects for the coming year, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Until Thursday, the Administration had argued that at least six tests a year are needed to ensure the safety of the U.S. nuclear stockpile and to ensure that weapons will work if ever called upon to do so. To foreclose those tests would be irresponsible, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney argued in a letter to Congress last month.
The plan adopted by the House would impose a nine-month moratorium on tests beginning next month, put strict conditions on subsequent tests and ban them after Jan. 1, 1997. The ban would be waived if any other country resumes testing.
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