John Podesta and Sen. Tom Daschle: "There is no need to wait to ratify this treaty"

Former Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD) and John Podesta, President of the Center for American Progress, a Ploughshares Fund grantee, today released a statement applauding the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's positive action on the New START treaty.  

They said:

We commend the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s strong bipartisan vote in favor of the New START treaty. The Senate has risen above partisan election-year politics and worked together to advance a treaty that is vital to our national security.

This bipartisan vote demonstrates that Democrats and Republicans can cooperate to pass the New START treaty now. There is no need to wait to ratify this treaty. Every day that goes by without New START is a day the United States loses valuable intelligence on Russia’s nuclear forces due to the expiration of on-the-ground verification and monitoring measures. This harms U.S. security and could exacerbate an already uncertain and dangerous nuclear environment. We look forward to the full Senate’s consideration of New START as soon as possible and anticipate that senators will again choose to put this country's national security ahead of partisan politics.