er rereileny € MAR £3 1997 New York Academy of Sciences March 21, 1997 The Honorable Trent Lott Senate Majority Leader The United States Senate SR-487 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510-3210 - Dear Senator Lott: The Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences expresses its unanimous support for ratification by the U.S. Senate of the Chemical Weapons Convention prior to the treaty becoming international law on April 29, 1997. The mission of the Academy supports the independent debate of controversial issues and aims to bring the best of science and technology to serve national and international goals. We affirm that mission by urging you to use your good offices to advance the debate about this decision in the full Senate. During the past fifteen years, and over several administrations, The United States was a leader in the work to establish these. international accords by which the actions of compliant and non-compliant countries may be held to account. We recognize that no disarmament agreement can possess a perfect regime for verification; but this‘one does have strong provisions for monitoring. Moreover, the treaty surely will reenforce and raise the world's commitment to avoid all uses of chemical arms. Failure to ratify the treaty would seriously jeopardize the U.S. leadership in reducing chemical arms, leaving the U.S. outside the emerging global consensus and with little subsequent voice in international enforcement policies or actions. At the same time, the U.S. Congress has unilaterally removed these weapons and we face a heavy bill for their safe disposal. Our committee adds its collective voice to those of many others who have decided, after weighing the arguments, to support ratification. Sincerely, Wide x. Martin L. Leibowitz, Ph.D. Chairman of the Board sdbean tt Mbade Rodney W. Nichols President and CEO 2 East 63rd Street Serving Science, New York, NY 10021 Technology, and T: 212.838.0230 Society Worldwide F: 212.838.5226 Since 1817 E: nyas@nyas.org: http://www. nyas.org Board of Governors Chairman of the Beard Martin L. Leibowitz TIAA-CREF Vice Chairman Richard A. Rifkind Sloan-Kettering institute President and CEO Rodney W. Nichols Treasurer John T. Morgan International Executive Service Corps Gevernors Eleanor Baum The Cooper Union D. Allan Bromley Yale University Lawrence B. Buttenwieser Rosenman & Colin Praveen Chaudhari IBM T. J. Watson Research Center Edward Cohen Ammann & Whitney Ronald L. Graham AT&T Research Bill Green New York City Housing Development Corporation Jacqueline Leo ABC News Good Morning America William J. McDonough Federal Reserve Bank of New York Sandra Panem Vector Fund Management. L.P. Charies Ramond Predex Corporation William C. Steere, Jr. Pfizer Inc Torsten Wiesel The Rockefeller University Past Chairman Henry M. Greenberg Columbia University St. Luke's-Rooseveit Hospital Center Honorary Life Gevernor William T. Golden American Museum of Natural History Joshua Lederberg The Rockefeller University Counga} Helene L. Kaplan Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom