Cash for nerve gas

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 8

Cash for nerve gas

NZPA-Reuter Washington The United States Senate yesterday approved SUS2S3 billion ($384 billion) in defence spending for 1984 that keeps alive President Ronald Reagan’s chemical warfare programme. In a repeat of the (northern) summer’s cliff-hanger vote the Vice-President, Mr George Bush, exercised his prerogative as presiding officer of the Republicancontrolled Senate to break a 46-46 tie on chemical weapons and give Mr Reagan a narrow victory. The Senate then approved 86-6 the full bill, which increases defence spending 4 per cent over 1983 and continues Mr Reagan’s hefty

military build-up with funding for the MX, Pershing 2, and cruise missiles, and the Bl bomber. The $U5247.3 billion defence bill passed by the House of Representatives last week does not contain the SUSI 24 million in chemical weapons funds passed by the Senate. The battleground now shifts to a House-Senate conference committee that will reconcile differences in the two bills. The United States has not produced nerve gas since 1969 and Mr Reagan has pushed hard to resume the programme. The added money would fund 155 mm gas shells and production facilities.

The fate of the funds was uncertain until the final vote. In addition to funding, the Senate included in the bill a requirement that the United States unilaterally destroyed two old chemical weapons for each new one deployed. In all, the Senate added SUSS47 million ($B3l million) to the defence programme in voting over the last three days, including SUSI6B million ($255 million) in advance funding for two nuclear submarines, SUSI7O million ($258 million) for defence plant equipment upgrading, and SUS7O million ($lO6 million) for an electronic warfare plane.