Lawmakers takes step toward nullifying nuclear arms treaty with Russia
By Karoun Demirjian May 10 at 7:21 PM
The House Armed Services Committee has moved to nullify a 30-year-old nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, endorsing a measure that would entrust President Trump to decide whether the United States should scrap the deal.
The Republican-led measure, which was added around midnight Thursday to a draft of next year’s defense spending bill, states that the United States will no longer consider the treaty binding without White House verification of Russia’s full compliance.
Though it is largely symbolic, as there are no related provisions in the defense bill that would put the United States in violation of the treaty, it marks Washington’s latest attempt, as sponsor Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) put it, to “nudge Russia into compliance” with a Cold War-era agreement that Moscow is believed to have violated for years. Alternatively, vacating the treaty could free the United States to develop weapons to deter new nuclear threats from China.
“You cannot have a treaty with oneself, and that’s the situation we’re in,” said Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), offering his support for the measure. “. . . We need to recognize reality.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/lawmakers-seek-to-void-nuclear-arms-treaty-with-russia/2018/05/10/a3f07d70-545d-11e8-9c91-7dab596e8252_story.html
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