Washington, D.C. – Today, following a press conference to discuss the New Strategic Arms Reduction (New START), Senators John Kerry, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Carl Levin, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Dianne Feinstein, Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, released the following statements urging their colleagues to set aside partisan politics and procedural delays to address a treaty that will help keep Americans and the world safer:
Chairman Kerry said, "The members of the Senate have a solemn obligation to cut through the rhetoric and procedural ploys and cast their votes on this agreement based on the cold, hard facts. If my colleagues focus on the facts embodied in this agreement, I am confident we will ratify the New START treaty and take another important step toward making the world safer from nuclear catastrophe."
Chairman Levin said, “The New START treaty will make us safer today and leave a safer world for our children and grandchildren. It will reduce the chance that a terrorist or rogue nation can use these terrible weapons against us. That’s an opportunity we should be eager to seize.”
Chairman Feinstein said, “The Intelligence Committee has carefully vetted the New START agreement. I am persuaded that this Treaty will enable our Intelligence Community to effectively monitor how Russia is reducing and deploying its strategic arsenal. It has been more than a year since American inspectors were on the ground in Russia, and as a result we have less insight into any new Russian weapons and delivery systems that might be entering their force. We must act quickly to ratify New START before our national security suffers further.”
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