We need your help to get START on the Senate Floor!
The fate of the New START Treaty is hanging in the balance in the Senate. We are confident we have the votes to ratify the treaty. Thursday, Sen. Brown (R-MA) called for a vote on the treaty. On Friday, Sens. Collins (R-ME) and Snowe (R-ME) endorsed START. However, some Republican senators are trying to delay the treaty until next year. The Senate schedule is changing everyday and the START treaty could be knocked off the calendar.
The Senate really should not delay approval of this treaty. Our top diplomats, the heads of the military services, and almost the entire foreign policy establishment supports this treaty. If the treaty is brought to a vote, Senate leaders from both parties acknowledge 67 senators will vote in favor of ratification.
Yet some senators are threatening to block a vote. Please help us make sure that doesn’t happen.
YOU CAN HELP!
Will you make one more phone call to your senators’ offices to urge them to make sure this treaty comes to a vote in the next week? You can call the Capitol Switchboard and ask for your senators by name at 202-224-3121.
Begin by giving your name and the city where you live and say that your call is about the New START Treaty. Then ask your senator to vote to ratify START to make Americans safer from the threat of nuclear weapons.
After you have called your senator, please ask five friends in your state to call as well. Thank you!
Background:
67 Votes
The constitution requires that two-thirds of the Senate - 67 senators - must approve any treaty. Sen. Dick Lugar has said that if the treaty is brought to a vote it will pass–that is there are enough Democrats and Republicans to approve the treaty. Opponents of the New START Treaty are trying to prevent a vote from happening–which is why your work to urge your senators to bring the treaty to a vote is so important.
Why New START is Important
It will reduce tensions between the two largest nuclear powers in the world by allowing both countries to inspect the other country’s nuclear arsenal. With the expiration in December 2009 of the first START treaty, inspections and verifications stopped over a year ago. Those inspections can resume as soon as New START is ratified.
It will reduce the number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons in both of our countries, from 2,200 to 1,550 each.
If our Senate fails to ratify START, prospects dim for ratification of future arms reduction treaties.
