This article was written by the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness in Washington.
Please contact your senators today and ask them to publicly call for a vote to ratify New START and to vote for START.
On September 16, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a treaty that will make all of us safer. The Committee voted 14-4 (with one senator absent) to approve the New START Treaty with Russia and send the treaty to the full Senate for a vote. But the tight Senate schedule means that unless Senators from both major political parties publicly call in the next two weeks for an up-or-down vote on this treaty, the Treaty may not be ratified this year. Please ask your senators to call for a vote and then vote “yes” on the New START Treaty.
Thanks to all whose visits, phone calls, letters, and emails made this happen.
Here’s why this New START treaty is important both for national security.:
* The treaty makes us safer. The treaty will reduce the number of deployed nuclear weapons in U.S. and Russian arsenals
* The treaty allows U.S. inspectors to monitor Russian nukes in Russia. By the time the committee votes it will have been more than 285 days since U.S. on-site inspections of Russian nuclear weapons and facilities were suspended.
* The treaty has the overwhelming support of the military and national security experts of both parties, including current and former commanders of our nuclear weapons.
Background
The Senate has done its due diligence: Over the course of 21 hearings and briefings during the last five months, senators have had the opportunity to ask questions and put to rest concerns. Read an op-ed by former Secretaries of State George Schultz and Madeleine Albright and former Senators Gary Hart and Chuck Hagel on this issue.
The treaty is supported by many past and current Chairmans of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, by former Secretaries of State George Shultz, Henry Kissinger, James Baker, and Colin Powell, and former Secretaries of Defense James Schlesinger, Frank Carlucci and William Cohen. Read comments by some of the people who support this treaty.
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has made a number of statements on nuclear weapons. This include a call for the elimination of weapons of mass destruction and a call for the United States and Russia to reduce their nuclear arsenals.
Please contact your senators today and ask them to publicly call for a vote to ratify New START and to vote for START.