On the recordDecember 16, 2010
I come this morning to address the START treaty, the New START treaty. I voted for it to come out of the Foreign Relations Committee to the floor. I want to go through my reasons for having done so. I wanted to talk about what the New START treaty is, not what it is not. First, I want to pay tribute to Dick Lugar. He has been a bastion of strength on nuclear proliferation and nonproliferation issues for years. I thank Senator Kerry for the time he gave us to go through hour after hour after hour of hearings and hour after hour after hour of secure briefing in the bowels of the new Visitor Center, where we read the summary of the notes of negotiations on the treaty, where we read the threat initiative and the estimate of the terrorism threat initiative and all the classified documentation about which we cannot speak on this floor. These things are critical to our consideration as we debate this treaty.
