Originally published on the CGS blog on December 6, 2010.
December 5th, 2010 marked an unfortunate anniversary for U.S. national security. It has been one year since the previous arms control treaty between the United States and Russia expired, meaning that the U.S. has not been able to inspect the Russian nuclear arsenal since December 2009. We have no boots on the ground, no verification, no way of knowing what’s happening with the nuclear weapons that still remain in Russia’s possession.
This intolerable situation has dragged on for a year because the U.S. Senate has yet to vote on the New START treaty, which would strengthen national security by reducing both nations’ nuclear stockpiles while ensuring that monitoring of nuclear arsenals can begin again. The New START treaty was signed by President Obama and Russian President Medvedev in April 2010. But months later, despite twenty hearings and incredible bipartisan support from the U.S. military and former secretaries of state and defense, the treaty continues to be stalled by a handful of obstructionist Republican senators. Senator Kyl of Arizona, the Republican Party’s unofficial negotiator on this issue, is holding the treaty hostage even after the Obama administration proposed an additional $4.1 billion in funding for the nuclear weapons complex on top of the original $80 billion. Senator DeMint of South Carolina is threatening to block New START any way he can for political reasons alone, including threatening to filibuster the treaty – despite that being procedurally impossible.
This rhetoric needs to end and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needs to hold a vote on New START as soon as possible-forcing these obstructionist senators to either accept or confront the sage advice of this country’s military leadership. Tell your Senators to Vote YES on New START.
National security needs to trump politics. It is past time for the Senate to vote on New START. Tell your Senators to Vote YES on New START before they leave for Winter Break.
