Dear Friend,
Email your Senators today!
Ask them to vote "YES" on the New START treaty.
Yesterday one of the most important votes of the 111th Congress was held in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – a strongly bipartisan, 14 - 4 vote that cleared the way for the full Senate to ratify the New START treaty between the U.S. and Russia. The START treaty is an important step toward our overall goal of a nuclear-free future.
Now we need your help for the final push to ensure this modest but strategically critical treaty gets a vote before this Congress adjourns.
A BIG THANK YOU to AFSC supporters in Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi who asked their Senators to do the right thing and vote yes on the New START Treaty resolution of ratification. With your help, Senators Bob Corker (TN) and Johnny Isakson (GA) joined their fellow Republican Richard Lugar (IN) and all the committee’s Democrats to create a clear bipartisan majority for the treaty. Well done!
The strength of this committee vote increases the likelihood that the measure can garner the 67 votes necessary to approve the treaty— if the full Senate has an opportunity to vote on the measure. With some seeking to block this resolution from an up or down vote and elections fast approaching, the Senate could run out of time to advance this important agreement.
We need to ask for your help again. Urge your senators to publicly call for a vote before Congress adjourns in October, and to vote “yes” on the New START Treaty.
Many of us wish this treaty went further. When fully implemented, the U.S. and Russia will still have more than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons.
But the treaty will make us safer by
- reducing the number of deployed nuclear weapons
- allowing U.S. inspectors to monitor Russian nuclear weapons, and
- clearing the way for additional steps away from nuclear proliferation – steps
that may be politically unviable for many years if this vote fails.Please contact your Senators today and ask them to call publicly for a vote on the New START treaty.
To learn more see our New START treaty resource page, and the information compiled by our friends at FCNL.
Thank you for writing our government to take this important step for everyone's safety.Wage Peace,
Joseph Gerson
Disarmament Coordinator
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Friday, September 17, 2010
American Friends Service Committee: The Final Push for a vote on New Start
It's About Time We Got START - By John Kerry | Foreign Policy
Bipartisanship has been in short supply in America these days, to put it mildly. Over the past year, health care reform, financial regulatory reform, and energy legislation have all met fierce resistance on Capitol Hill, where the mood has too often been one of distrust, reflexive opposition, and frustration. Fortunately, this spring the Senate was handed an opportunity to demonstrate its ability to work together on at least one issue of critical importance -- arms control -- in the form of New START, the United States' latest nuclear reductions treaty with Russia. And in an important first step Thursday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee demonstrated that bipartisanship is not dead yet.
Traditionally, such treaties have garnered overwhelming Senate support, even in uncertain and polarized times. On Thursday the committee, by a bipartisan vote of 14 to 4, approved a resolution of ratification providing our advice and consent to New START. Three of those 14 votes came from Republicans.
The question now is whether we can seize this moment and push ahead with finalizing a treaty that reaffirms American leadership on nuclear issues -- or whether the ideological obstructionism and political rancor that has plagued so many other issues surfaces in connection with one of our most pressing national security challenges.
New START, which U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed in April, limits the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads apiece. It also places caps on missiles and bombers, as well as launchers like missile silos. Under the existing Moscow Treaty, negotiated by George W. Bush, each country is permitted to deploy between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads, so some see this new treaty's reductions as modest. And it is true: This is no disarmament pact. But when you're talking about nuclear weapons, even modest agreements can be significant.
New START continues 40 years of nuclear diplomacy, which was first aimed at ending the arms race -- and then at reversing it. By eliminating redundant weapons, the agreement continues the cuts that Ronald Reagan initiated when he signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987 and began negotiations on the original START Treaty. Even if America's relationship with Russia is now strong enough that neither side fears an attack from the other, it still makes sense for the nuclear superpowers -- our two countries possess some 90 percent of the world's atomic weaponry -- to establish clear limits on their arsenals. The predictability that stems from having such limits, along with the transparency provided by the monitoring and verification provisions contained in New START, produces stability that will make any future crisis less dangerous.
Of course, because it reinforces U.S.-Russian relations, the treaty makes it less likely that any crisis will arise in the first place. Those improved ties will have other benefits as well. Already, in the past five months Russia has begun allowing our forces to transit its territory on their way to Afghanistan, it has suspended a deal to sell Tehran advanced anti-aircraft missiles, and it has supported a U.N. resolution further sanctioning Iran for its nuclear activities. Friendlier relations will also facilitate vital initiatives, like the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which are designed to keep weapons and fissile material out of the hands of terrorists -- our top national security priority.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
NTI: Global Security Newswire - Senate Committee Passes "New START" Pact
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee today approved the "New START" nuclear arms control treaty, sending it to the full chamber for ratification, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Sept. 15).
(Sep. 16) - Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), left, and ranking panel Republican Richard Lugar (Ind.), shown last year. The committee today signed off on ratification of a new U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control treaty, which now awaits approval from the full Senate (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images).
The vote in favor of the U.S.-Russian pact was 14-4, with three GOP lawmakers supporting the resolution of ratification: panel ranking member Richard Lugar (Ind.) and Senators Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Johnny Isakson (Ga.).
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April signed the agreement. The deal requires the former Cold War adversaries to each cut their deployed strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 warheads, down from the maximum of 2,200 allowed by 2012 under a 2002 agreement. They must both also restrict their active nuclear delivery vehicles to 700, with another 100 platforms allowed in reserve.
The Senate should act on the treaty "as soon as possible," said committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) He said a vote was likely to happen after November's midterm elections.
At least eight Republican senators would need to support the treaty to achieve the 67 votes required for ratification.
"I personally believe we will have the votes to ratify this," Kerry said. In Moscow, there is little doubt that Russian lawmakers would sign off on the pact.
The ratification resolution was prepared by Lugar, who sought to address GOP concerns about the treaty that were not resolved by a draft resolution written by Kerry (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 16).
Republican senators have expressed concerns that the treaty would constrain U.S. missile defense activities and could allow Moscow room to breach its obligations, the Associated Press reported. They also pressed the Obama administration to ramp up funding to ensure the viability of the remaining U.S. nuclear complex.
Committee member Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) made it clear during the hearing that his concerns persisted.
"If we are going to move ahead with the commitment not to protect the people of the United States, I think everyone in this country ought to know it," he said.
However, DeMint went on to negotiate behind closed doors with Kerry, Lugar and others a new version of a missile defense amendment that the South Carolina Republican had offered. The committee passed that compromise amendment in a unanimous voice vote, though DeMint was not present for that decision or for the vote on the full ratification resolution.
Kerry said the pact is crucial to the nation's security. Supporters have also noted that placing the treaty into force would allow the United States to once again conduct verification monitoring of Russia's nuclear force. Such inspections were halted following the December 2009 expiration of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Desmond Butler, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 16).
“By ratifying this treaty, we will limit Russia’s nuclear arsenal,” Kerry said. “We will regain the ability to inspect their nuclear forces. And we will redouble international support for our nonproliferation efforts. At a moment when the world has imposed sanctions on Iran for its nuclear ambitions, this treaty validates American leadership and moves the world an important step closer to reducing the threat from nuclear weapons" (Peter Baker, New York Times, Sept. 16).
Senate panel recommends nuke treaty with Russia | In victory for Obama, Senate panel recommends approval of nuclear treaty with Russia | TPM News Pages
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the New START treaty in a 14-4 vote. Three Republicans voted with Democrats — a sign that Obama may get the votes needed for final passage. But it is unclear whether the full Senate will consider the treaty this year.
Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the treaty in April. It would shrink the limit on strategic warheads by about a third from the current ceiling of 2,200. Some Republicans fear the treaty doesn't include sufficient safeguards to prevent Russian cheating.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration was poised for a victory on one of its top foreign policy goals Thursday as a Senate panel appeared likely to recommend approval of a U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control treaty with a bipartisan majority.
It was not clear that the administration has the votes or the time to get the treaty, known as New START, to the Senate floor for ratification this year. Hopes for passage improved this week, however, as a second Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee looked likely to support it.
As he opened a meeting to consider the treaty, committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., cast the accord as essential for U.S. national security. "The stakes are enormous," he said.
Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the treaty in April. It would shrink the limit on strategic warheads to 1,550 for each country, down about a third from the current ceiling of 2,200. It also would implement changes in current procedures that allow both countries to inspect each other's arsenals and verify compliance.
Democrats had delayed a committee vote on the treaty as they sought broader support from Republicans. They will need at least eight Republican votes on the Senate floor to have the two-thirds majority needed for ratification.
Some Republicans say the pact does not establish adequate procedures for ensuring that Russia abides by its terms. They also fear that Moscow could use the treaty to limit U.S. missile defense plans. Some Republicans also are tying their support to assurances that Democrats will provide more money to maintain and improve existing nuclear warheads.
But the treaty's prospects received a boost this week when a Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker, endorsed an amendment from the committee's senior Republican, Sen. Richard Lugar, aimed at overcoming his party's reticence on the treaty.
But some Republicans weren't persuaded and Tuesday's debate became heated at times. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., cited the missile defense concerns and said the treaty would undermine U.S. security.
"If we are going to move ahead with the commitment not to protect the people of the United States, I think everyone in this country ought to know it," said DeMint.
That provoked the ire of Kerry and other Democrats, who said that all the lawmakers were committed to protecting the American people.
Democrats say the treaty could be considered by the full Senate before the November congressional election. But given the intense partisan atmosphere in Washington in the run-up to the vote, Democratic prospects may be better in a "lame-duck" session that would take place after the elections, but before the new Congress is seated. Passage could be more difficult under a new Congress because Republicans are expected to pick up seats in the election.
The administration has held the treaty up as a sign that its efforts to improve relations with Russia have borne fruit. Failure to ratify the treaty or a long delay would represent a significant foreign policy setback.
Citizens for Global Solutions - Ratify New START Now!
Last April the U.S. and Russia signed the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which puts us one step closer to eliminating nuclear weapons. Together, the U.S. and Russia possess almost 95% of the world’s strategic nuclear weapons, and the Treaty will cut these nuclear arsenals by one-third. But, for the Treaty to enter into force it must be ratified by both countries, which means that two-thirds (67 votes) of the Senate must vote in favor of the Treaty.
Tell your two Senators we need New START NOW!
