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[Page: E1801]

• Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, this afternoon, I voted NO on the Fiscal Year 1999 Defense Authorization Bill for a number of reasons, the most pressing is the policy included in the bill under Section 1513, that concerns American satellite and rocket cooperation with communist China.

• After months of personal investigations, as Chairman of the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, I disclosed on the House floor evidence indicating that some U.S. aerospace companies had helped China upgrade its rocket system. In a cooperative effort to launch American satellites, technology and knowledge has been transferred that improved China's ability to land a nuclear weapon in the United States, including those with multiple warheads.

• Since making this charge on the floor of the House, a Select Committee has been appointed to thoroughly investigate the issue. Under Congressman Chris Cox's leadership, that committee is now underway. From what I understand, it has verified much of what I originally charged. This legislation, Section 1513, however, is letting those who betrayed America off the hook by giving them six months to complete their projects and to apply for new export licenses during that period--until March 1999--that would be excluded from national security control under the United States Munitions List.

• Do we hold U.S. security that lightly that we are willing to give one of the most ruthless communist regimes on this planet the technology to further develop weapons systems that could incinerate our country?

END