The Hill News

A long-awaited showdown vote on the START arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia will be held this week by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
 
The committee will take up the treaty at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, in a room to be determined. Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) had postponed the vote just before the Senate’s August recess.
 
Committee member Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) announced the vote on the Senate floor Monday afternoon, noting that more than a dozen hearings were held on the controversial treaty this summer. Two Foreign Relations Committee staffers confirmed the scheduled vote.

{mosads}“After hours of testimony from some of the most knowledgeable people in and out of government, as well as public statements of support from countless experts, we can say with great confidence that the Senate’s ratification of the START treaty is in our national interest,” Cardin said.
 
President Obama and Russian Presid! ent Dmitry Medvedev signed the treaty in April in Europe; it would reduce warheads, missiles and launchers in both countries.
 
Ratification would require 67 votes in the Senate â€" the House does not vote on treaties â€" and collecting that many votes has been an uphill battle for Kerry, made especially difficult by election-year tensions. Many Republicans are following the lead of Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), an avowed skeptic of the treaty.
 
So far, the only announced Republican to support the treaty is the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.). In August, Lugar publicly predicted that “a large majority” of GOP senators would eventually support the treaty. Lugar said the treaty will pass the committee and will likely receive a final vote in a lame-duck session after the November elections.
 
“I think a majority in fact do favor the treaty nominally and will eventually vote for the treaty," Lugar said in an i! nterview with C-SPAN. If it is brought up, "a large number of ! Republic ans will be in favor of the treaty, but not all of them," he said.
 
The last START treaty ended in December, and although both countries have agreed to observe its terms, actual verification has ended. Proponents use that fact to bolster the case for ratification, as well as the damaging message that would be sent around the world by Senate failure to ratify the treaty.
 
Kyl and other critics say the treaty does not do enough to “modernize” existing weapons, and makes the U.S. vulnerable.