Iowa is Watching the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

“New
START has taken on a meaning that is much more than what is reflected
in its terms and conditions. It has become a referendum on whether it is
possible for the two political parties to come together to support
nuclear disarmament as they have in the past.”

The vote of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the New START Treaty is scheduled for 9:30 AM EDT on September 16, 2010. The entry on the committee's public calendar does not look like much, but behind it has been a whirl of intrigue, debate and positioning that makes some Iowans wonder what all the brouhaha is about. After all, the proposed reductions in strategic nuclear weapons between the United States and Russia are modest. New START has taken on a meaning that is much more than what is reflected in its terms and conditions. It has become a referendum on whether it is possible for the two political parties to come together to support nuclear disarmament as they have in the past.

Chairman John Kerry has the votes to move the treaty out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Expected to vote yea are Kerry (D-MA), Dodd (D-CT), Feingold (D-WI), Boxer (D-CA), Menendez (D-NJ), Cardin (D-MD), Casey (D-PA), Webb (D-VA), Shaheen (D-NH), Kaufman (D-DE), Gillibrand (D-NY) and Lugar (R-IN). Either undecided or expected to vote nay are Corker (R-TN), Isakson (R-GA),  Risch (R-ID), DeMint (R-SC), Barrasso, (R-WY), Wicker (R-MS) and Inhofe (R-OK). Some in Washington believe that Senators Corker and Isakson may be persuadable, and there is a significant amount of activity in their home states to persuade them to vote yea. Risch, Barrasso and Wicker are also said to be undecided at present. The challenge is not getting the treaty out of committee.

The challenge is getting New START to the floor of the full senate. In today's senate, the possibilities of what the Senate could act upon are restricted by how the majority leader counts votes. Does Senator Reid have the votes for cloture (i.e. to break a filibuster)? Does Reid have the 67 votes needed to ratify? During the past few weeks, there has been a lot of discussion about the Senate schedule, but even the optimistic among us realize that Reid is unlikely to schedule a vote on something that would result in defeat for an item on the administration's agenda.

Blog for Iowa has posted about the Heritage Foundation and their opposition to New START. They are a powerful lobbying group and have been meeting with Senators and their staff to explain their arguments. While grassroots activism is not their strength, they are working on building that kind of support. The arms control organizations in Washington are not without resources. One can be assured that they are leveraging these resources to persuade the persuadable members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to vote yea on the treaty. Activities on both sides of the question are intensifying as we lead into next Thursday. It's what Washington does.

Whether the 111th Congress will ratify the New START Treaty is an open question. In the partisan world of the United States Senate, now is the time for ratification. If the treaty vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is delayed again, for more than a day or two, ratification this year will be a significant challenge. If New START is not ratified this year, it may not happen for a long time.

Failure to ratify New START would be a failure for all of us. It would be a reflection of what we increasingly realize in the post-Reagan era, that the two party system of government is incapable of meeting the modest needs of its citizenry. Where once elected officials could agree has become yet another soap box for demagogues and ideologues to practice their trade to the detriment of Iowans and populations around the globe. We hope our Senators are better than that and that they will ratify the New START Treaty.

~Paul
Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend
editor of Blog for Iowa. E-mail Paul
Deaton