On the recordMay 24, 2010
Mr. President, what I wish to speak to today is the START treaty which has been submitted by the administration for consideration by the Senate. The President signed the treaty on April 8 of this year, submitted it to the Senate for ratification on May 13, and 2 weeks ago the Foreign Relations Committee began hearings on the treaty. In the consideration of past treaties, the Senate has taken great care to consider the entire record of relevant documents and to seek the views of a wide variety of experts, and I am sure that will be done in this case as well. According to a report from Senator Thune, who is the head of the Republican Policy Committee: [On] the original START, almost 430 days passed between the time President George H.W. Bush signed it-- That was July 31, 1991-- and the U.S. Senate provided its consent to the treaty [on October 1, 1992]. As for the Treaty of Moscow, which is to terminate if New START is ratified, it was signed on May 24, 2002 and ratified by the Senate more than nine months later on March 6, 2003. That treaty, by the way, is only three pages long. So it is not surprising that it takes some time.
