The START Treaty
“The Nunn-Lugar program has made possible, through operations of the United States military, United States contractors, working with their counterparts in Russia, the destruction of very sizeable amounts of nuclear weapons. Threats we took very seriously in 1991 and I hope Americans take very seriously currently.” - Senator Lugar
Day Three Speech #2
Day Three Speech
Day Two Speech
Day One Speech
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December 1, 2010: On December 1, 2010, U.S. Senator Lugar released a statement regarding the New START Treaty and nuclear modernization. Earlier this week, Senator Lugar wrote to three National Laboratory Directors to obtain their views on the updated 1251 plan submitted in November. Today, he received a response from all three Lab Directors.
November 17, 2010: On November 17, 2010, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Dick Lugar met with Committee Chairman John Kerry and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regarding the urgent need to pass the New START Treaty before the end of this congress. Further details and updates on Senator Lugar's efforts are available at www.facebook.com/senatorlugar. A video of the press conference following the meeting is below.
September 16, 2010: The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved the resolution of Advice and Consent for the START Treaty by a vote of 14-4. The approved resolution was a substituted offered by Committee Ranking Member Dick Lugar and cosponsored by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN). All Committee Democrats voted for the resolution as well as Republicans Lugar, Corker and Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA).
Below is Lugar's statement at today business meeting.
OPENING STATEMENT FOR NEW START MARK-UP
Today, Members of this Committee will vote on whether to provide our advice and consent to ratification of the New START Treaty. This vote comes after four months of consideration of New START and more than a dozen open and classified Committee hearings, hundreds of written questions and answers, letters, briefings, and more than a year of consultations throughout the Treaty's negotiation.
I strongly support the New START Treaty and believe that it deserves the bipartisan support received by past arms control treaties. It will make verifiable reductions in strategic nuclear launchers and warheads and replace the 1991 START I Treaty that expired last year. Most importantly, New START will enable American verification teams to return to Russia to collect data on the Russian arsenal and verify Russian compliance. These inspections greatly reduce the possibility that we will be surprised by future advancements in Russian weapons technology or deployment. Rejecting this treaty would inhibit our knowledge of Russian military capabilities, weaken our non-proliferation diplomacy worldwide, and potentially re-ignite expensive arms competition that would further strain our national budget.
New START has received the unequivocal support from our defense establishment led by Secretary Robert Gates, both the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, our current STRATCOM commander, as well as seven former STRATCOM commanders. It also has received the strong support of national security leaders who served in the Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush administrations.
Today, I will offer an amendment, in the form of a substitute, to the underlying Resolution of Advice and Consent. I believe that it augments the Chairman's Resolution, which was a starting point for our discussion. My goal was to incorporate suggestions expressed by witnesses, Members of this Committee, and other Senators, as well as to address the major substantive concerns that emerged in our deliberations.
My substitute amendment covers at length concerns that have been raised on missile defense. It contains an understanding, to be included in the instrument of ratification, that the New START Treaty imposes no limitations on the deployment of U.S. missile defenses other than the requirements of paragraph 3 of Article 5, dealing with converted ICBM and SLBM launchers. It also states that the April 2010 unilateral statement by the Russian Federation on missile defense does not impose any legal obligation on the United States and that any further limitations would require Treaty amendment subject to the Senate's advice and consent. In a declaration, my amendment re-affirms, consistent with the Missile Defense Act of 1999, that it is the policy of the United States to deploy an effective national missile defense system as soon as technologically possible and that nothing in the Treaty limits future planned enhancements to the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system and all phases of the Phased Adaptive Approach to missile defense in Europe.
My substitute amendment conditions ratification of New START on Presidential certification, prior to the Treaty's entry into force, of our ability to monitor Russian compliance and on immediate consultations should a Russian breakout from the Treaty be detected.�� For the first time in any strategic arms control treaty, a condition requires a plan for New START monitoring.
Additional understandings state that nothing in New START impedes the research, development, testing, and evaluation of Conventional Prompt Global Strike systems, nor prohibits their deployment. An understanding also reaffirms that if Russia should develop any rail-mobile ICBM system, it would count under the provisions of New START.
My substitute amendment also declares a commitment to ensure the safety, reliability, and performance of our nuclear forces through a robust stockpile stewardship program and includes a requirement for the President to submit to Congress a plan for overcoming any future resource shortfall associated with his ten-year 1251 modernization plan on our nuclear weapons stockpile.
Finally, my substitute amendment urges the President to engage the Russian Federation to establish measures to improve mutual confidence regarding the accounting and security of Russian nonstrategic nuclear weapons. It requires prompt Presidential consultation with this Committee concerning substantive activities of the Bilateral Consultative Commission in order to ensure that substantive changes to the Treaty are only made with the Senate's advice and consent.
The New START Treaty serves the national security interests of the United States. I believe that my proposed amendment addresses concerns raised about this Treaty, and I urge each Senator to support it.
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September 15, 2010: During the week leading up to Senate Foreign Relations Committee consideration of the START Treaty, Ranking Member Dick Lugar sent a series of letters to his colleagues making the arguments for the treaty and his version of the Resolution of Advice and Consent.
On June 24, 2010, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held an afternoon hearing on the New START Treaty with with Senior Scholar at the National Institute for Public Policy Robert G. Joseph, Distinguished Fellow at Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments Eric S. Edelman, and Senior advisor at the Open Society Institute Dr. Morton H. Halperin. Watch Senator Lugar's opening statement and questions below.
On June 24, 2010, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a morning hearing on the New START Treaty with Deputy Under Secretary for Defense Policy James N. Miller, Jr. and the Director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Kenneth A Myers, III. Watch Senator Lugar's opening statement and questions below.
On June 16, 2010, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the New START Treaty with General Kevin P. Chilton USAF, Lieutenant General Patrick J. O'Reilly, Director of the Missile Defense Agency, and James N. Miller Jr. Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Watch Senator Lugar's opening statement and questions below.
On June 15, 2010, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the New START Treaty with Rose Gottemoeller, Chief U.S. Negotiator in Post-START Negotiations, and Edward L. Warner, III, Secretary of Defense Representative to Post- START Negotiations. Watch Senator Lugar's opening statement and questions below.
On June 10, 2010, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the New START Treaty with former National Security Advisors Brent Scowcroft and Stephen J. Hadley. Watch Senator Lugar's opening statement and questions below.
On May 25, 2010, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the New START Treaty with former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. Watch Senator Lugar's opening statement and questions below.
On May 19, 2010, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the New START Treaty with former Secretary of State/Treasury James A. Baker, III. Watch Senator Lugar's opening statement and questions below.
On May 18, 2010, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the New START Treaty with Secretary of Defense Bob Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Watch Senator Lugar's opening statement and questions below.
On April 29, 2010, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the New START Treaty. Former Director of Central Intelligence and Secretary of Defense & Energy James R. Schlesinger and former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry testified. Watch Senator Lugar's opening statement and questions below.
On March 26, 2010, Senator Dick Lugar released the following statement on the announcement of the New START Treaty between the United States and Russia:
"I commend the U.S. and Russian delegations for months of dedicated effort. I look forward to the President's submission of the new treaty, its protocols, annexes and all associated documents to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification. I also look forward to working with Chairman Kerry to begin scheduling hearings and briefings for the Foreign Relations Committee so that we can work quickly to achieve ratification of the new treaty."