On the recordDecember 22, 2010
I rise today to express my support for the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as New START, which was signed by the United States and Russia on April 8 and transmitted for the advice and consent of the Senate on May 13. Since then, Chairman Kerry, with the unwavering support of Ranking Member Lugar, has navigated the treaty through 18 hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations, Armed Services, and Intelligence Committees--and I commend the chairman for his determination to see this paramount accomplishment through to the finish. Without equivocation, since his election to the U.S. Senate in 1976, Ranking Member Lugar has been an overriding force of nature in reducing the threat of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons--and his work with then-Senate Armed Services Chairman Sam Nunn to lay the groundwork for the deactivation of more than 7,500 of these dangerous weapons in the former Soviet Union is legendary. Throughout the negotiations and consideration of New START, Ranking Member Lugar has once again demonstrated his incredible depth of knowledge and expertise on these issues, which has been of the utmost benefit to the Senate.
