Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this week announced legislation that would require President Donald Trump to extend the New START nuclear arms control treaty with Russia.
The measure, which would need a veto-proof majority to become law, would require Trump to extend New START into February 2026 unless Russia “is not in material compliance with New START such that the object and purpose of the Treaty is significantly undermined,” according to the bill text.
The legislation would give the president until Nov. 3, 2020, to enact the extension. If that does not happen, it calls on the federal government to avoid any breach of the accord while it remains in force and for Russia to do the same. That would give the sides from Jan. 20, 2021, to Feb. 5, 2021, to negotiate an extension, according to the bill text. Those dates are, respectively, the next presidential Inauguration Day and the day the treaty will currently expire.
The measure was one of two nuclear arms-control bills Menendez unveiled Tuesday. Together, the bills would, the senator said, establish a framework for beginning arms control talks with both Russia and China. The latter is not party to any nuclear-arms-limiting treaties.
The second bill would, if passed, require the secretaries of state and defense to produce a report for Congress “that examines the approaches and strategic effects of engaging the People’s Republic of China on arms control.” The report, according to Menendez, should discuss both nuclear and non-nuclear weapons, delivery systems, and also highlight the Chinese military capabilities that concern the agencies the most.
Meanwhile, a group of 12 Democratic, or Democratic-aligned, senators led by noted antinuclear Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) this week filed a bill that would prohibit the Trump administration from funding nuclear explosive tests with appropriations for fiscal 2021. Before Memorial Day, The Washington Post reported that the administration was discussing a nuclear-explosive demonstration — this time, as a means of bringing Russia and China to the table to negotiate a new arms control deal. The United States has not conducted any nuclear-explosive tests since 1992.
The Trump administration wants to replace New START, a bilateral treaty between Russia and the U.S. ratified during the Barack Obama administration, with a trilateral treaty that also constrains China’s nuclear arsenal, plus additional Russian nuclear weapons.
New START limits to 1,550 the number of strategic nuclear weapons that Washington and Moscow may deploy on a mixture of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), heavy bomber aircraft, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM). Both sides reached that limit in February 2018.
The accord can be extended for up to five years if the U.S. and Russian presidents agree. Russia has said it would extend the treaty, but Trump has focused on a trilateral deal. China has said it will not participate in nuclear arms-control talks.
