[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18293]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        RATIFY START IMMEDIATELY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Quigley) for 1 minute.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues in the 
Senate to ratify the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty or START 
immediately because every day we wait to ratify START is one more day 
that Russia's nuclear arsenal goes uninspected.
  When our last nuclear arms treaty with Russia expired last December, 
so did our ability to inspect their nuclear sites. This means no 
Americans have inspected Russian nuclear facilities for almost a year. 
Despite the urgent need to ratify this vital treaty which also reduces 
unneeded nuclear stockpiles and builds much-needed confidence with 
Russia, some members in the other body have continued to stall, putting 
politics ahead of national security.
  START has been through 18 hearings, is endorsed by dozens of foreign 
policy and defense experts, and passed out of committee with a strong 
bipartisan majority. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
claim to be the strongest proponents of national security; ratification 
of START is an opportunity for them to act on those claims and keep 
America and our allies safe.

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