START Vote Uncertain
Laura Rozen reports on the uncertainty surrounding the START vote:
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has added a Wednesday Aug. 4 business meeting to next week’s schedule to consider the START nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia.
The administration is still hoping for a committee vote on the treaty next week before the Senate breaks for August recess. But some on the committee are skeptical that everything can come together by then.
“Senator Kerry is working with his colleagues and the administration to hear views and address questions raised by senators about the New START treaty and related issues as quickly as possible,” committee spokesman Frederick Jones told POLITICO's Jen DiMascio.
“These efforts and discussions are ongoing, and as of now no final decision has been made about whether to proceed with the vote in the Foreign Relations Committee next week," Jones said.
There's a full court press to try to get Republicans on board by then. Vice President Joe Biden will meet with Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) at 9:45 a.m. today at the White House where the issue is expected to be discussed.
Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) held meetings with Assistant Secretary of State for Verification Rose Gottemoeller this week. Gottemoeller showed both Senators a "summary" of the negotiating record on key topics such as missile defense in a bid to satisfy Republican members requests for the complete record. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also met twice with Corker and Isakson on the issue this month.
Meantime, Sens. Jon Kyl, Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Corker, Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and John Thune (R-S.D.) are going this weekend to Los Alamos and Sandia national nuclear laboratories to get assurances about funding for U.S. nuclear labs.
The State Department released the unclassified compliance report on arms control and nonproliferation treaties Wednesday, a classified version of which went to Congress earlier this month. It found “Russia was in compliance with START’s central limits during the treaty’s lifespan,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Wednesday.
“GOP Senators have been very clear about what they need to even get ready to consider the Resolution of Ratification,” a Republican Senate aide told POLITICO, citing the negotiating record, the answers to questions for the record submitted by U.S. government witnesses, the opportunity to review those along with the State compliance report, the National Intelligence Estimate on the treaty’s monitoring and verification provisions and a verifiability assessment.
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