Senate Democrats appear to have enough votes to overcome a Republican filibuster on the new START arms-control treaty, though it’s unclear if they will have the 67 votes needed for ratification.
At least four Republicans have committed to supporting the U.S.-Russia treaty or are leaning that way, including two who say they will vote for cloture. If Democrats can hold their 58-member caucus together, that would likely put them at or over the 60-vote threshold required to end debate on the treaty and move forward.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid?(D-Nev.) filed a cloture motion Sunday night that would set up a cloture vote Tuesday and a final vote for ratification Wednesday.
“As we move ahead, I look forward to continuing to debate amendments. But soon this will come down to a simple choice: you either want to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists, or you don’t,” Reid said.
Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has been urging START ratification in the lame-duck session, is expected to vote for cloture. So will Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).
“I’ve said that I’ve supported START and a vote for cloture to proceed to the consideration of it, because I do think it is critical to always engage in reducing our respective arsenals,” Snowe told reporters Sunday at the Capitol. “Wherever we can engage in that with Russia, it is absolutely essential that we do so.”
But she said it’s crucial that her GOP colleagues have the ability to offer amendments. “If we work this process through, we may come to an ultimate conclusion,” Snowe said.
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