The drive by the Obama Administration to ratify the START Treaty during the Senate’s upcoming lame-duck session took a blow on Tuesday, when Sen. Jon Kyl (AZ-R) released a statement saying that he did not think the Senate would have time to vote on the treaty until the new year. Kyl had been the Republicans’ lead negotiator for the ratification vote, and his support was seen as critical to the treaty’s passage.
“When Majority Leader Harry Reid asked me if I thought the treaty could be considered in the lame duck session, I replied I did not think so given the combination of other work Congress must do and the complex and unresolved issues related to START and modernization,” Kyl said.
Vice President Joe Biden was quick to release a statement in response, arguing that “without ratification of this Treaty, we will have no Americans on the ground to inspect Russia’s nuclear activities, no verification regime to track Russia’s strategic nuclear arsenal, less cooperation between the two nations that account for 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, and no verified nuclear reductions.”
Chances of the treaty’s ratification would likely be greatly diminished if it were not considered before the new Congress convenes in January, as it would require at least 14 Republican votes in the newly constituted Senate, instead of the nine currently necessary to reach 67 votes — the two-thirds majority required to approve a treaty.
Some Republicans have expressed concern over cuts the treaty would require to be made to the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. The Obama Administration had attempted to allay these concerns by announcing last week that it would request an additional $4.1 billion for modernization of the U.S. nuclear complex over the next five years. These concessions appear not to have swayed Sen. Kyl, however.
The pros and cons of the START Treaty were covered in-depth in the October issue of International Debates. Full-length articles on the recent developments have appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Associated Press.
