Five Democratic senators recently sponsored a bill that would preserve the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).
The treaty, enacted in February 2011, reduces by 74 percent the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads from the original treaty’s limit of 6,000. It is the final U.S.-Russia bilateral nuclear arms control treaty.
The Save Arms Control and Verification Efforts (SAVE) Act would impose limits on the number of U.S. nuclear warheads and prohibit funding increases the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal. It also would extend the treaty through February 2026. The agreement currently expires in 2021.
An exception would be made on the limits if Russia attempts to increase its nuclear arsenal above New START limits in a significant way.
The act also requires the Trump administration to provide Congress with the information needed to understand the national security implications of New START lapsing.
“New START has made the United States and the world safer by reducing the chances of nuclear war, and if President Trump won’t protect it, Congress will,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), one of the sponsors of the bill said.
The bill also is cosponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Edward J. Markey (D-MA).