As the New START nuclear reductions treaty with Russia heads to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote Thursday morning, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee is outlining his numerous concerns with the treaty.
"While I support many of the New START treaty's goals, a number of significant flaws must be addressed by the Senate prior to endorsing ratification," wrote Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in a Sept. 14 letter to SFRC committee heads John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN), obtained exclusively by The Cable.
"If the New START treaty is to be in
the national security interests of the United States, the Senate's resolution of advice and consent to ratification must at a minimum establish binding prohibitions against constraints on ballistic missile defense; a long term commitment to the long term modernization of the nuclear weapons complex and the nuclear triad, limitations on the authority of the Bilateral Consultative Commission (BCC), and
assurances that future arms control negotiations with Russia address reductions in tactical nuclear weapons."
McCain has never indicated whether he will ultimately vote in favor of the treaty. In a brief interview with The Cable on Tuesday, he would only say that "serious discussions are still ongoing," referring to negotiations between Senate Republicans and the Obama administration.
Although most of McCain's issues are addressed in the latest version of the resolution of ratification put forth by Lugar, his demands in some cases seem to go further than the current language of the Lugar resolution. This suggests that McCain and other Republicans will continue to seek changes to Lugar's resolution to strengthen the language as it makes its way through the ratification process.
Republicans who are still unsatisfied by what Lugar and the administration have negotiated will have two opportunities to make changes. At Thursday's hearing, several Republican committee members are expected to offer amendments to Lugar's resolution, but those will need Democratic committee support in order to be adopted.
Non-committee Republicans will also be able to offer amendments and statements of "reservations" when the treaty comes to the Senate floor. But it is unlikely that any vote will happen before the midterm elections and, during what could be a very short lame-duck session, the appetite for debating changes to the resolution could be scarce.
Regardless, the McCain letter shows that leading Republicans, including McCain's Arizona colleague Jon Kyl, have still not completely signed on. McCain is not opposing the Lugar resolution, but he's not endorsing it either. As the endgame for START ratification takes shape, the administration still has a lot of heavy lifting to do if they want the support of leading GOP senators like John McCain.
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