Senate Panel Delays Vote on Nuclear Treaty
Wall Street Journal
04 August 2010
By ADAM ENTOUS
A key Senate committee postponed until September a vote on the revamped Start arms-control treaty with Russia, buying time for its backers to try to line up enough Republicans to pass one of President Barack Obama’s top foreign-policy objectives.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee had been scheduled to hold a vote on the treaty before the Senate adjourns later this week for the monthlong August recess. But its chairman, Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.), agreed Tuesday to a request from Republican senators for more time for deliberations and to review documents about the treaty.
Mr. Kerry now wants the committee to vote in mid-September, squarely in the middle of congressional campaign season. It is unclear whether the full Senate will act before the November election.
“I chose to reschedule the vote to be responsive to the concerns of our members so that we can build bipartisan consensus around a treaty that our military leaders all agree will make America safer,” Sen. Kerry said. “I strongly believe that timely ratification of this treaty is vital to America’s security.”
GOP skeptics say questions remain about the treaty, specifically over how the scheduled arms reductions will be verified.
Supporters of the treaty worry that putting off the vote could backfire on the White House and undercut efforts to round up at least eight Republican votes, the number needed for passage. Treaties require two-thirds support.
“If the vote were about the substance, it would be an overwhelming vote in favor,” said Janne Nolan, director of nuclear security at the American Security Project. “If the vote devolves into the referendum on the future Republican Party and on Obama, then it has a chance of being defeated.”
She said many Republican senators who would otherwise support the treaty were “worried about giving Obama a victory right before the election.”
The White House played down the delay. “We remain optimistic about the prospects for ratification of the treaty,” said Mike Hammer, spokesman for the White House National Security Council. “The treaty is complicated, and there is a lot of material to review.…It is not surprising that senators want more time.”
Mr. Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the treaty, the most significant in nearly two decades, in March, declaring a new chapter of cooperation between the nations on nuclear issues and beyond.
The treaty has been dubbed New Start, a reference both to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty it replaces and what both sides call a bid to reset the relationship between the world’s two nuclear superpowers. It caps the number of deployed nuclear warheads at 1,550 apiece, a 30% reduction from the 2,200 limit agreed to in the Moscow Treaty of 2002.
Each side would be limited to 700 intercontinental missiles, submarines and heavy bombers, less than half the number agreed to in the 1991 treaty, the last comprehensive and verifiable arms accord.
The Senate panel has conducted 12 hearings on the treaty, but Mr. Kerry said several senators had requested additional time to review comments from the Armed Services and Intelligence panels before proceeding to a vote.
Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma said the delay would help his fellow Republicans shore up “no” votes. “It’s helpful to us,” he said. “It gives us a chance to be sure that all members hear the unanswered questions and the objections. The time before the committee votes is our friend.”
Mr. Inhofe said Democrats were under pressure to move the treaty before the November election, because Republicans gains would make passage more difficult.
