The Envelope, Please

By PAUL GRAY/

To what, exactly, has the U.S. committed itself in Saudi Arabia? In an Aug. 9 letter informing Congress of his decision to deploy troops in Saudi Arabia, President Bush referred to "requests" from King Fahd and Kuwait; some three months later, the Administration is still not telling anyone, including the Senate or the House, the nature of the U.S. response. This refusal risks violating the Case-Zablocki Act of 1972, which requires the Secretary of State to submit to Congress within 60 days the substance of all international accords, written or oral. A year ago, failure to do so would have raised the threat of a funding cutoff, but that provision of the act was inadvertently allowed to lapse this year. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans to put this stricture back on the books next year. In the meantime, it has been negotiating with the White House for a look at the Saudi agreements, so far without success.

With reporting by David E. Thigpen