Senate Bill Tasks ORS Office To Develop Low-cost Weather Sat

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Senate defense oversight panel recommended allocating $60 million next year to develop a low-cost weather satellite under the auspices of an office that the Pentagon has marked for closure.

Work on Defense Appropriations Bill Nears Completion, Aides

Senate and House appropriators are within days of completing a fiscal 2012-defense appropriations bill that likely will set a top line of about $518 billion.

In letter to Senate, Obama says New START pact won’t limit missile defense

President Obama issued a letter to the Senate on Sunday pledging to fully develop a U.S. missile defense system in Europe, as part of a final offensive to relieve concerns about the nuclear arms pact with Russia as it moves toward a final vote.

Essential Issues Must Be Addressed Before New START Is Taken Up in the Senate

In an article post from the Heritage Foundation they said that there are three aspects that the Government must consider before passing the New START Treaty. Safeguarding the event of being able to develop missiles for defense is at the top. In the article they stated that the United States is urging for a quick ratification during the “lame duck” session, so they may have insight to the Russian regime, and that it is amazing because we have claimed that the Russian Federation is not a threat.

This piece is the opinion of the authors and is not a reflection of  MDAA’s view.

Editorial: We Can’t Delay This Treaty

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates combined to write and Op-ed in the Washington Post. In the piece they urged the Senate to approve the New START treaty. They pointed to a number of reasons why the treaty should be ratified and highlighted what it will and will not do. Foremost in what they said it would not do is limit the United States’ ability to deploy effective missile defense. This piece is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect MDAA’s view on the New START treaty.

Obama Calls Arms Treaty a Priority

President Obama took some time on his tour of Southeast Asia to speak with Russian President Medvedev about a number of joint issues. Obama made sure to highlight the importance of the New START treaty. There have been rumblings on both sides about the Duma or the Senate’s abilities to ratify the treaty.

Russia’s Duma Decision to Delay Consideration of New START: Now the Senate Can Take Its Time to Review the Treaty

 

Last week, Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Russian State Duma International Affairs Committee, proposed that members of the committee consider delaying New START, a strategic nuclear arms reductions treaty with the United States. Subsequently, the International Affairs Committee decided to delay its consideration of the legislation that would authorize the ratification of New START by the full Duma.

According to leading Russian analysts, the action, taken without a formal vote, does not amount to the annulment of the earlier treaty endorsement by the committee. However, the equivalent on the U.S. side would be a recommendation by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to the full Senate that it suspend action. The Duma committee’s recommendation necessarily raises a number of questions for the U.S. Senate that the Obama Administration must answer before it considers the treaty.

Senate Approves Resolution Honoring Ted Stevens

The United States Senate today approved by unanimous consent a resolution crafted by Sen. Lisa Murkowski that honors the life and accomplishments of Sen. Ted Stevens, who was killed Monday in a plane crash near Dillingham. Murkowski received assistance in drafting the resolution from multiple generations of former Stevens staff members.

The resolution, co-sponsored by Sen. Mark Begich and the other 98 senators, recognizes Stevens’s “significant role” in the transformation of Alaska from an impoverished territory to a full-fledged state. The resolution cites Stevens’s assistance in providing Alaska with energy facilities, hospitals and clinics, roads, docks, airports, water and sewer facilities and schools – accomplishments that earned him recognition as ‘Alaskan of the Century’ from the state legislature in 2000.

Vote on New START Nuclear Arms Treaty Delayed in Senate

The Obama administration’s hopes for rapid, bipartisan approval of its new arms-control treaty with Russiaratification without iron-clad assurances of future spending to maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal have dimmed, with Republican senators making clear that they will not support.

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, announced Tuesday that he will delay a key vote on the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) until after the summer recess. That will pitch the treaty into the politically charged period just before the November elections.

Report Finds Russians May Not Be in Compliance, Could Sink New START Pact

The United States believes Russia is not fully complying with international pacts involving chemical and biological weapons, although Moscow has settled most questions about violations of a nuclear arms treaty with the United States, according to a State Department report to be made public Wednesday.

The State Department Compliance Report had been requested earlier this month by seven of the eight Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They were concerned because the last report in 2005 highlighted what they described as “direct violations of START I by the Russians, ” a reference to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty signed in 1991.

The report comes at a crucial time, as the Senate considers a new treaty that would replace START I. The Obama administration hopes to have it ratified by year’s end, when Democrats will likely lose some of their Senate seats. The Foreign Relations Committee could vote on the treaty as early as next week.