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Amendment offered by Mr. Spence: At the end of title II (page 12, after line 25), add the following new section.

(a) Findings.--The Congress makes the following findings:

(1) The United States and its allies face existing and expanding threats from ballistic missiles capable of being used as theater weapon systems that are presently possessed by, being developed by, or being acquired by a number of countries, including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and North Korea.

(2) Some theater ballistic missiles that are currently deployed or are being developed (such as the Chinese CSS-2 missile and the North Korean Taepo Dong-2 missile) have capabilities equal to or greater than the capabilities of missiles that were determined to be strategic missiles more than 20 years ago under the Strategic Arms Limitation Agreement I (SALT I) Interim Agreement of 1972 entered into between the United States and the Soviet Union.

(3) The Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty was not intended to, and does not, apply to or limit research, development, testing or deployment of missile defense systems, system upgrades, or system components that are designed to counter modern theater ballistic missiles, regardless of the capabilities of such missiles, unless those systems, system upgrades, or system components are tested against or have demonstrated capabilities to counter modern strategic ballistic missiles.

(4) It is a national security priority of the United States to develop and deploy highly effective theater missile defense systems capable of countering the existing and expanding threats posed by modern theater ballistic missiles at the earliest practical date.

(5) Current United States proposal in the Standing Consultative Commission (SCC) would multilateralize the ABM Treaty, making future amendments or changes to the Treaty more difficult, and would impose specific design limitations on United States theater missile defense (TMD) systems that would significantly compromise the United States TMD capability.

(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of the Congress that further formal negotiations in the Standing Consultative Commission (SCC) and any informal discussions or negotiations on either the demarcation between theater missile defense (TMD) systems and anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems, or any other effort that bears on the viability of the ABM Treaty, including multilateralization of the treaty, should be suspended until the One Hundred Fourth Congress has had the opportunity to review those matters.

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