CGS Helps Defeat Motion to Block Internationalizing Anti-Proliferation Initiative

On January 9th, Citizens for Global Solutions learned that Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, would offer a motion to remove an important provision of a bill designed to implement recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. The provision urged the president to work with the United Nations Security Council to develop a resolution to authorize the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) under international law. The PSI is an international effort -- led by the United States -- to stop the transfer of banned weapons and weapons technology. The initiative primarily focuses on combating proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and materials.

Citizens for Global Solutions objected to the Ros-Lehtinen motion and sent a vote-alert to House offices that urged Members to oppose it. The alert noted that the U.S. had nothing to lose, lots to gain by expanding the PSI and authorizing it under international law so as to eliminate potential legal perils for the United States and to attract new partners. “Many U.S. friends and allies,” said the alert “would be more likely to participate in a truly multilateral institution endorsed by the U.N. Should the President succeed in winning Security Council authorization or getting full multilateral backing, the program would greatly benefit. Should such an effort fail, the PSI would continue to operate as it does today.”

During debate on the motion, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair, Tom Lantos (D-CA), said that opponents were attempting, “to exhume an old tactic: Scare the American people with the specter of the all-powerful, irresistible military machine that is the United Nations. . . this characterization is as absurd as ever and has about as much substance as Shakespeare's Banquo's Ghost. But it is part and parcel of the irrational opposition to all things multilateral even when multilateral and international institutions clearly benefit American interests.”

Ros-Lehtinen’s motion was defeated on a party line vote of 198 to 230. Senior Congressional staffers contacted Citizens for Global Solutions and thanked us for our help in blocking the motion.