A new START to strengthen national security (Sen. Jeanne Shaheen)

After a careful and thorough examination, including 12
open and classified hearings, more than 20 expert hearing witnesses, and
overwhelming support from across the political spectrum – including the
unanimous support of America’s military leadership – it is clear that America
will be safer and more secure with this treaty than without it.  The New START Treaty will strengthen
our country’s national security, and a failure to ratify this treaty could lead
to serious consequences as we work to protect our country from the threat of
nuclear proliferation.

Since the end of the Cold War, the nuclear threat facing
our country has evolved.  The
danger of a nuclear exchange between the world’s two superpowers has subsided,
but the possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands has
increased.  We should not be blind
to the catastrophic consequences that nuclear terrorism presents to our
world.  The New START Treaty
represents a step forward in avoiding that nuclear nightmare.

Together, the U.S. and Russia account for more than 90
percent of the world’s nuclear weapons: an arsenal capable of incalculable
damage.  As global leaders of the
nuclear non-proliferation regime, it is our solemn responsibility to ensure
that these weapons and materials do not fall into the wrong hands.

If we are to curb the threat of proliferation and build
support in the international community to meet this challenge, we will need to
demonstrate to the world that our two nations are serious about responsible and
verifiable reductions in our nuclear arsenals.  The New START Treaty accomplishes this objective by limiting
the strategic nuclear forces of the U.S. and Russia.  If ratified, the treaty will go far in meeting our ongoing
commitments under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and gives us added
credibility to leverage all NPT members to meet their own obligations and
commitments.

In addition to limiting the number of strategically
deployed weapons, the New START Treaty could serve as the foundation for future
negotiations on reducing the number of tactical nuclear weapons that experts
say pose a potential proliferation threat.  As a number of witnesses testified, agreement with Russia on
tactical nuclear weapons will be much more difficult – if not impossible –
without ratification of the New START Treaty.

In addition, the New START Treaty will advance U.S. national
security by maintaining a credible deterrent for the U.S. and our allies and by
guaranteeing verifiable reductions in the numbers of nuclear weapons aimed at
our homeland.  This is why seven
former commanders of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) wrote to the Senate in
July urging the treaty’s ratification saying that New START “will enhance
American national security.”  

The New START Treaty will give us important insight into
the Russian nuclear arsenal.  We
have now gone more than 280 days without critical intelligence we receive from
an on-site verification and monitoring presence in Russia.  With the expiration of the original
START Treaty in December 2009, U.S. inspectors lost access to dozens of Russian
sites.  If we don’t ratify the New
START Treaty, we will lose this critical information.  As outgoing STRATCOM Commander, General Kevin Chilton
testified, “If we don’t get the treaty, [the Russians] are not constrained in
their development of force structure and…we have no insight into what they’re
doing.  So it’s the worst of both
possible worlds.”  In other words,
failing to ratify the treaty will put American national security at risk. 

Failure to ratify the treaty would also send a dangerous
message to Russia and the rest of the world that the U.S. is abandoning the
high ground with respect to nuclear reductions.  Reversing decades of arms control policy would signal to the
world that the U.S. no longer stands behind its nuclear commitments and would
undermine the basis for our current global non-proliferation regime.

Arms control has a long history of strong bipartisan
support in the Senate.  Previous
generations of Senate leaders did not allow politics to get in the way of
national security.  The threat
posed by nuclear terrorism, the proliferation of nuclear materials, and a lack
of transparency and access to Russia’s nuclear program is too dangerous to
delay action any further.  We must
do our part to help build a culture of nuclear accountability and
transparency.  New START provides that
foundation, and the treaty deserves the Senate’s ratification this year.