WASHINGTON — The Senate Wednesday voted 71-26 to approve a historic U.S.-Russia treaty that requires both nations to reduce the number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons.
Thirteen Republicans joined 56 Democrats and two independents in giving bipartisan endorsement to the pact, which President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed in Prague in April.
Obama, who had made a determined, personal push for Senate approval, told a news conference, "The strong bipartisan vote in the Senate sends a powerful signal to the world that Republicans and Democrats stand together on behalf of our security."
The vote was the culmination of a lame-duck congressional session that gave Obama a series of legislative victories that included repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" and approval of a controversial extension of Bush-era tax cuts and unemployment benefits.
Obama praised the session as "a season of progress for the American people."
The New START treaty was the post-election session's major foreign policy triumph, one that Obama wanted badly, and Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were on the Senate floor Wednesday.
The 26 no votes, all Republicans, were an unusually high number for such a treaty, though Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., joked that because of the sharp partisanship of today, "71 is 98."
He praised the vote as crucial to Obama's foreign policy.
"It's an enormously important measure of credibliity for the president," Kerry said. "The reality is any president's ability to sit down with leaders in another country and say to them, 'If we agree to X, Y and Z, I can deliver' is critical."
Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla., thought otherwise. "When the US enters into treaties designed to protect our national security," he said. "We should show strength, not timidity and this treaty fails that standard."
The treaty was tough to push because its details are complex, and many senators fear that should something go awry with nuclear weapons, this vote could haunt them.
"It is an unpleasant issue. No one likes to talk about making weapons, but it is a part of reality in the United States and in the world today," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who backed the treaty and whose state hosts a major nuclear weapons facility slated to get money from the increased modernization budget Obama agreed to.
Despite a week of often sharp debate, the final day of consideration was a collegial affair after Tuesday's 67-28 vote to cut off debate sent a strong signal to opponents that their effort to derail the treaty was doomed.
"This treaty was carefully negotiated. It represents our best interests," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. "It certainly is a step in the right direction."
Foes seemed almost relieved.
"This may be the last arms control agreement for awhile, and maybe we can get back to focusing on the real issues, issues of proliferation, of terrorism, dealing with threats from countries like North Korea and Iran," said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who led the opposition.
His allies spent Wednesday reiterating their concerns, and some passions were cooled when a bipartisan coalition agreed to statements that say, among other things, that the New START treaty doesn't infringe upon U.S, missile defense development and deployment. Another change pressures the White House to provide money for nuclear weapons facilities.
The changes do not affect treaty language, however. Russian officials warned Monday that they wouldn't renegotiate terms in the treaty.
According to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., its major sponsor, it "requires the president to certify we don't recognize Russia's argument that the treaty can only be effective and viable only in conditions when the United States is not building up its missile defenses."
That means, said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., that "we're going to continue development and deployment of a missle defense system to defend against missiles from nations such as....North Korea and Iran."
The New START Treaty restricts the U.S. and Russia at the end of a seven-year period to deploying no more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads on 700 strategic bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched missiles.
That would be about a 30 percent drop from the 2,200 limit set in a 2002 treaty that's due to expire at the end of 2012. The new treaty will also permit the two nations to resume inspections of each other's nuclear weapons. Those inspections have been suspended for just over a year, a gap that worries U.S. intelligence officials.
A new inspection system agreed on in the treaty will be more intrusive than the regime that ended last year. Among other measures, U.S. and Russian experts will be allowed for the first time to look inside the other's missiles and count the actual number of warheads they carry, rather than accept agreed-upon assumptions as they did before.
(William Douglas and Jonathan S. Landay of the McClatchy Washington Bureau contributed) ON THE WEB:
Senate roll call vote on treaty
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