Political Quotes

“I am very pleased that the Senate is about to ratify the New START treaty--I hope and believe with a very solid bipartisan vote. This really is a historic moment. This is the biggest arms control treaty in 20 years, and the most important foreign policy action the Senate will take this Congress. This is absolutely the right thing to do. It is important to our national security and it is critical to uphold America's place in the world community. As I have said many times, the arms reductions in this treaty are modest. New START requires a 30 percent reduction in warheads from the limits set out in the Moscow Treaty in 2002 to 1,550 on each side, but both the United States and Russia have been reducing their strategic stockpiles since then. The real importance of this treaty comes from the monitoring provisions, confidence-building measures, and the strengthened relationship between two of the world's major powers. We have not had inspectors at Russian nuclear facilities for 13 months. We have not had data exchanges on the size and deployment of Russian forces. Russia has had the freedom to block our national technical means to monitor their forces. Apart from our national technical means, we are now blind. With this treaty, we will benefit from these measures and others.”