The New START Treaty being signed by Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev on April 8th, 2010 in Prague.
The New START Treaty has taken center stage in the lame duck session of Congress. Democrats are trying to push through the treaty, which was signed by President Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev on April 8th, 2010. All treaties signed by the President in both Russia and the United States must be ratified by certain legislative bodies in each country before the agreements are said to be fully-binding.
The New START, in its April 8th form, will limit the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550. This represents a nearly two-thirds reduction in warheads since the original START Treaty and a one-third reduction in deployed strategic warhead limit of the 2002 SALT Treaty. It will also limit deployed and non-deployed ICBM (inter-continental ballistic missile) and SLBM (submarine-launched ballistic missile) launchers and deployed bombers equipped for nuclear armaments to 800 and the number of deployed systems to 700. Adherence to these terms will be enforced through remote monitoring, including the use of satellites, and up to 18 on-site inspections per year.
In the United States the Senate must pass the New START Treaty by a two-thirds majority before it becomes law. During this procedure the Senate can add amendments to the treaty. If the treaty is passed with amendments, President Obama must go back to the bargaining table with Russia and attempt to get an ok on the revised treaty. In Russia the New START Treaty must first get through the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, and then through the Federation Council, the upper house.
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http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/134435-reid-cites-gagas-meat-dress-lohans-rehab-in-start-treaty-push
“The proper exercise of diplomacy by the United States does not threaten our sovereignty. The Founding Fathers understood the value of diplomacy. They drafted the Constitution, in part, because they wanted the United States to be able to negotiate treaties with other nations. But they also understood that American foreign policy must ultimately be controlled by the American people.
That is why, for instance, the United States Senate must approve treaties that are negotiated by the President. That is how our diplomatic process works. But today, American sovereignty is threatened by the many treaties that seek to take power away from the nations that negotiate them. The solution is not to reject treaties or diplomacy: it is to return to the vision of the Founders, and to their belief that the American people have an inherent right of self-government, through their elected representatives, that cannot be extinguished by any treaty.”
President Obama’s New START creates an implementing body, called the Bilateral Consultative Commission (BCC), and gives it broad powers to promote the objectives of the treaty. These powers could include imposing additional restrictions on the U.S. missile defense program. This is an unacceptable cession of our national sovereignty. President Ronald Reagan walked away from Mikhail Gorbachev’s offer to eliminate nuclear weapons because he asked us to give up our missile defenses in return. No true conservative could support this treaty as it stands. – s groves
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110114/pl_nm/us_russia_usa_start