Non-STARTer

The Senate Republican Policy Committee has some choice words for Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry's (D-MA) proposed draft resolution of ratification for the follow-on Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. In a Sept. 9 blog post, the committee called the draft resolution a "non-starter," adding:

The draft is mostly a series of precatory declarations that essentially amount to nothing more than hortatory statements expressing the sense of the Senate on a variety of issues touched on by the treaty.  Most importantly, the draft text's proclamations on missile defense for some reason are not in the Understandings section assured to be legally binding and included in the instrument of ratification, but rather appear in the Declarations section of the draft text.  Chairman Kerry was clearly capable of requiring that such positions be included in the instrument of ratification, as the Understandings section of his draft specifically states that the Understanding "shall be included in the instrument of ratification," while the Declarations section contains no such statement.  A charitable explanation of this would be that it is just an oversight; a just as likely one would be that the Chairman's draft reflects the Administration's over-bearing concern not to annoy Russia in any way.  At a minimum, any proposed resolution of ratification of New START must include a legally binding Understanding that there are no constraints in the treaty (other than Article V) on the development or deployment of U.S. missile defenses to be included in the exchange of instruments of ratification with Russia so there is no doubt on this point.