On the recordDecember 16, 2010
I support the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, also called the New START Treaty. New START, if ratified, will have several major and positive impacts on our national security and on global nonproliferation. I must express my deep disappointment that the Senate has not yet ratified this treaty, and I join my friends Chairman Kerry and Senator Lugar in appealing to all Senators for their cooperation and support in ratifying this treaty. The New START treaty is the right move for our country and for our world. New START builds on a long history of strategic nuclear arms treaties between the United States and Russia and Russia's predecessor, the Soviet Union. Beginning with the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks ratified in 1972, we have entered into three strategic arms control treaties with the Soviet Union and Russia. This number does not include START II, which was ratified by the Senate in 1996 but never entered into force due to subsequent treaty mandates from the Russian Duma. The most recent arms control treaty, the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, or SORT, was ratified unanimously in March 2003. Unfortunately, both the SALT and original START treaties have expired, with START concluding last December. The expiration of these treaties means that the United States presently has no fully implemented arms control treaty governing the nuclear weapons stockpiles of the United States and Russia.
