The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee agreed by a 14-4 vote to send the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) to the full Senate for advice and consent to ratification.
The treaty requires support from two-thirds of the full Senate. It is uncertain whether this process will be completed by the end of the year. If the treaty is approved by both Russia and the United States, it will limit their arsenals to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads on each side.
For more information on the New START agreement and the U.S. Senate, see:
- Senate panel approves new arms treaty with Russia
Susan Cornwell, Reuters via Yahoo! News, September 16, 2010
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100916/pl_nm/us_nuclear_usa_start_2
- Also read the related BASIC Press Release, and BASIC Program Director Anne Penketh’s analysis: Stopping New START?