Conservatives Rebuffed in Senate as Bid to Amend INF Treaty Text Fails

The Senate brushed aside a final attempt to amend the medium-range missile treaty with the Soviet Union on Wednesday and moved toward a partisan battle over an amendment attached to the resolution of ratification by Democrats in the Foreign Relations Committee.

The completion of work on the treaty text effectively ended efforts by a small band of conservatives to derail the agreement with amendments that would have required new negotiations with the Soviets.

Although a bitter battle loomed over some of the language in the resolution of ratification, it promised to be only a contest between factions supporting ratification.

After agreeing that there would be no further attempts at making changes in the text of the treaty proper, senators rejected by 89 to 10 a measure that would have given the United States and the Soviet Union the right to scuttle the treaty if the other provided false or misleading information on its missile forces.

10th Unsuccessful Amendment

The amendment, offered by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), marked the 10th unsuccessful attempt to amend the agreement. The text thus emerged from eight days of debate unchanged, none of the proposed alterations mustering more than 26 votes.

The tip-off that Helms was ready to give up his fight against the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty came when photographers were permitted in his closed negotiations with Democratic and Republican leaders Wednesday morning.

He was unable to comment on the proceedings, he said, adding, “I would admit that I am licked.”

But as President Reagan left for Moscow, where he hopes to exchange ratification documents with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev next week, the Senate leadership was still trying to avoid a fight over bringing the agreement to a final vote through a cloture process cutting off debate.

With the Senate marking time, then finally recessing for two hours, treaty opponents held off efforts by the leadership to get an agreement on when the pact would be put to its final vote.

As floor action turned to the resolution of ratification, White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr. joined Senate leaders in another effort to find a compromise on the Foreign Relations Committee amendment and to strike an agreement on timing of the vote.

Unless a time agreement could be struck before the Senate reconvenes this morning, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D.-W.Va.) is expected to call for a vote today invoking cloture--meaning that only 30 additional hours of debate would be permitted.

Late Wednesday, Byrd said it appeared that a cloture vote would be necessary, but he hoped to postpone it until midday today.

In any case, through agreement or parliamentary device, the pact is expected to be approved in time for Baker to take the U.S. documents of ratification with him when he leaves to join the presidential party in Moscow.

Although several days of stalling tactics on the treaty by Helms and other conservatives irritated both Republicans and Democrats and threatened to embarrass Reagan in Moscow, the most serious disagreement of the debate is expected to come today and Friday on the so-called Biden Condition.

The provision, added to the resolution of ratification by Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee, asserts the right of the Senate to interpret the treaty on the basis of authoritative testimony from Administration officials.

Democrats characterize it as a move to prevent later reinterpretation, as happened with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Determined to press ahead with development of its Strategic Defense Initiative, commonly known as “Star Wars,” the Reagan Administration took the position that the agreement was subject to a broader interpretation that would permit testing of SDI weapons.

Favorably Disposed

Byrd introduced an amendment to the committee amendment late Wednesday, but there was no indication whether Republicans were more favorably disposed toward it than the language added in the Foreign Relations Committee.

The Byrd version of the language eliminates a constitutional citation by the committee in its effort to make the language binding.

It declares that “the President shall implement and interpret the treaty in accordance with the common understanding of the treaty shared by the President and the Senate at the time the Senate gave its advice and consent to ratification.”

It also provides that, unless “lawfully made,” any other interpretation “shall have no force or effect.”

On Wednesday night, senators rejected by a vote of 69 to 28 an amendment by Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) that would have excluded conventionally armed, ground-launched cruise missiles from the treaty.

Because of verification problems and strong objections from Soviet negotiators, the United States agreed to include the conventionally armed missiles along with those carrying nuclear warheads.

Warsaw Pact Superiority

Hollings contended that the elimination of conventionally armed missiles would increase the Warsaw Pact’s superiority in forces over those of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

After rejecting the amendment, the Senate adopted by voice vote a sense-of-the-Senate resolution saying U.S. negotiators should not concede conventional cruise missiles in any strategic arms negotiations with the Soviet Union.