With the support of moderate as well as liberal lawmakers, the Senate voted today to impose a nine-month moratorium on nuclear testing and to stop testing permanently in 1996.

Chiles, never flashy, was considered a moderate lawmaker who rarely made waves.

Representative Charles W. Dent of Pennsylvania, a co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, an alliance of about 30 moderate Republican lawmakers, helped arrange the meeting.

The executions, by firing squad, infuriated even moderate American lawmakers, who said that Mr. Castro seemed intent on eliminating any chance of easing the trade embargo.

Most of the criticism has come from conservative and moderate lawmakers from the South and the Midwest.

Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, executive director of the Republican Mainstreet Partnership, said she expected that the group's moderate lawmakers would show added independence in coming months.

Mr. Bush sat down with moderate lawmakers for the first time on Tuesday, in a meeting that many of those present described as persuasive.

Mr. Bush had personally urged moderate lawmakers to oppose the Senate approach, saying he needed flexibility to make airplanes safe for passengers.

Q. When is a self-proclaimed moderate Republican lawmaker just another malleable vote?

A dozen supposedly moderate lawmakers turned tail as aptly named floor whips tested the rebels' steel.