243. Editorial Note
On June 18, the United States Senate gave its consent to the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency by a vote of 67–19. For text of the Statute, see Congressional Record, June 17, 1957, pages 9236–9241. Hearings on the Statute were held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee beginning May 21, and before a special subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee established on May 21 and headed by Senator J. William Fulbright. For minutes of the hearings, see Executive Sessions of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Together with Joint Sessions with the Senate Armed Services Committee (Historical Series), volume IX, 85th Congress, 1st session, 1957, pages 519 and 553.
The Foreign Relations Committee reported the Statute favorably to the Senate on June 14, with an “interpretation and understanding” that any amendment to the Statute would be submitted to the Senate in treaty form and that the United States would withdraw from the Agency if the Senate disapproved an amendment adopted by the Agency. The Senate rejected by a 31–55 vote an amendment introduced by Senator John W. Bricker that the United States should not make special fissionable materials available to the Agency except to the extent and under the terms and conditions authorized by Congress. For Senate floor debate on the issue, see Congressional Record, June 17, pages 923 ff., and June 18, pages 9429 ff. For text of President Eisenhower’s remarks at the ceremony following ratification of the Statute on July 29, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957, pages 571–572.