6

Further, Jim E. Hinds, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Negotiations Policy, Department of Defense, told the same Committee:

"In the last few years, two developments have occurred
to lead us to conclude that implementing legislation
probably is desirable. These are the explosion of

biotechnology, in both basic research and applied

technology, and the apparent interest in obtaining BW
capability demonstrated by several nations."

I hope the Administration is prepared today to offer its' unambiguous endorsement of the legislation.

Mr. Chairman, it is my urgent hope that 1989 will be the year that the Biological Weapons Convention implementation legislation is enacted into law. I will do all in my power to move the legislation through the House of Representatives so that both the House and the Senate are prepared to send legislation to the President before the end of this Congress. Implementing the ban on biological weapons, combined with renewed international efforts to strengthen the Convention, would demonstrate continuing U.S. understanding that biological weaponry is a terrible danger to humankind.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, I would like to say that the list of proponents of this legislation is particularly impressive. They are organizations for which, I know, we share the greatest

respect.

Shortly after my election as Chairman of the

Subcommittee, I received a letter from many of the groups urging
I would like to provide

passage of the implementing legislation.

a copy of that letter for the record.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify on this

important piece of legislation.

I would be pleased to respond to

any questions.

March 21, 1989

The Honorable Bruce Morrison, Chairman

Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and International Law

Committee on the Judiciary

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Mr. Chairman:

RECEIVED

MAR 2 1 1988

IMMIGRATION

We congratulate you on your election as chairman of a key subcommittee with jurisdiction over an issue that has been neglected for 17 years. We urge you to consider early hearings and adoption of a Biological Weapons Bill.

In past years, former Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino joined with the Committee's ranking Republican, Rep. Hamilton Fish, to introduce the Biological Weapons Bill (H.R. 901 in the last Congress). We urge you to cooperate with Reps. Fish and Kastenmeier in a bipartisan effort on behalf of a similar bill this year.

Passage of such a bill is necessary to conform domestic law with the international obligations we undertook by ratifying the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention which banned the development, production, possession and transfer of all biological and toxin weapons. As you are aware, the United States generally follows up treaty ratification with required domestic legislation.

The Biological Weapons Bill would make it a federal crime for any private citizen or corporation, including any governmental personnel, to develop, produce, or possess any biological agent or toxin for use as a weapon of mass destruction. Though the Biological Weapons Convention itself bars the U.S. government from developing biological weapons, it provides no domestic penalties against private individuals, or even terrorists, for work on biological weapons.

In light of increasing concern in the U.S. and around the world about biological and chemical weapons proliferation, it is urgent that the U.S. move quickly to complete this long overdue action. We urge you to join with Representatives Fish and Kastenmeier on a common bill, schedule hearings on it and follow it up with expeditious consideration.

Senator KOHL. Thank you, Representative Morrison.

And gentlemen, your statements will be placed in the record. Before we get to questions, I would like to solicit opening comments from Senator Simon.

Senator SIMON. I apologize for being late. I want to tell my new colleague from Wisconsin that you have two of the finest members of the House here. You probably became acquainted with Congressman_Kastenmeier during the course of your own campaign effort, but Bruce Morrison is of the same caliber and we are very pleased to have you here.

I want to be a cosponsor of your bill. I just think it is simple prudence that we do everything we can to see that not only the people in this room, but our children and generations to come do not have unnecessary threats, and that is what this all about. This is, I hope, the direction we will go.

I thank you for your leadership on this and I thank the two of you for your leadership.

Senator KOHL. Thank you, Senator Simon.

I would like to ask some brief questions.

Congressman Morrison, you mentioned that a variety of organizations support this legislation. Would you like to tell us who they are in particular?

Mr. MORRISON. Yes, Senator, attached to my testimony is a letter I received this past March from a number of organizations and I will just briefly read them to you because they are an impressive list:

The United Church of Christ; the Council for a Livable World; Professionals 'Coalition for Nuclear Arms Control; the American Baptist Churches; the Sierra Club; the NETWORK, A Catholic Social Justice Lobby; the Friends Committee on National Legislation; the Union of Concerned Scientists; committee for Responsible Genetics; Physicians for Social Responsibility; Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament; the Washington Office of the Church of the Brethren; the Unitarian Universalist Association of Churches in North America; SANE/FREEZE; the Women's Strike for Peace; Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; Mennonite Central Committee; Federation of American Scientists; and the Presbyterian Church, USA, a very diverse group of organizations with a common commitment to sensible measures for peace and protection of the world from the kind of danger that biological weapons present.

Senator KOHL. Thank you.

Representative Kastenmeier, you have many cosponsors. Could you tell us a little bit about what your hopes are for the prospects of this legislation?

Mr. KASTENMEIER. There are presently, Mr. Chairman, 51 cosponsors and that number is growing weekly and that does indicate, as I say, renewed interest in moving the legislation forward. Our committee, the Judiciary Committee and the subcommittees, particularly, Mr. Morrison's subcommittee, have been very busy with immigration legislation the last few months, but I am sure, as he has indicated, we will have an opportunity to raise this issue in September, and I am delighted and I am sure that he will give us every opportunity to move this legislation forward.