We flipped two more! This morning both Republican Senators from Maine–Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins–issued statements announcing that they intend to vote for ratification of New START! Senator Snowe said:

I am confident that New START will provide predictability in our relationship with Russia and thus enhance global stability, and most importantly, our national security.  Therefore, if the Majority moves to consider New START under a framework that allows for sufficient debate and amendments, I intend to support the Resolution of Advice and Consent.

This is exactly the kind of public Republican support we have been working for all year with our phonebanking, action alerts and other grassroots pressure. We are confident that if the Senate votes on the treaty, we have the 67 votes needed to ratify.

There has been some overblown reporting this week that Senator Kyl (R-AZ) opposes a vote on the New START Treaty in the lame duck session and this will kill consideration of the treaty this year. This is a drastic misinterpretation. The statement actually released directly from Sen. Kyl said the following:

When Majority Leader Harry Reid asked me if I thought the treaty could be considered in the lame duck session, I replied I did not think so given the combination of other work Congress must do and the complex and unresolved issues related to START and modernization. I appreciate the recent effort by the Administration to address some of the issues that we have raised and I look forward to continuing to work with Senator Kerry, DOD, and DOE officials.

For the past two years, I’ve been blogging on nuclear weapons news, from our success in defeating the Bush administration’s push for new nuclear weapons to the New START treaty to cut US and Russian nuclear arsenals, which is awaiting ratification by the US Senate. It’s been a great experience.

I’m moving on to attend graduate school and so in my final blog post, I wanted to remind our Groundswell readers to keep checking in for the latest news on nukes. Our new Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World coordinator Katie Heald will be taking my spot on the blog. She’ll keep you up to date on what you can do to encourage your senators to ratify the New START treaty, as well as how you can help our ongoing efforts to cut the bloated $180 billion for nuclear weapons and facilities being considered for the next decade. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for Katie’s blog posts!

The whopping $7 billion for nuclear weapons programs that was proposed for 2011 is just the tip of the iceberg in a huge funding increase for the nuclear weapons complex. Last year, Republicans successfully pushed to require the Obama administration to submit a special report on modernizing the nuclear weapons complex, maintaining or enhancing our nuclear weapons stockpile, and the expected costs for the next 10 years. When the New START treaty was officially submitted to the Senate, this report had to be released. Wanting to win over Republican senators’ support for the New START treaty to cut US and Russian nuclear arsenals, the administration put forward a plan that greatly increases nuclear weapons related funding to the level of $180 billion over the next 10 years. From the Washington Post:

If you’re in California’s Bay Area, be sure to come out for an interesting discussion with Tad Daley on how to eliminate nuclear weapons on Wednesday, May 26th.

Tad Daley, J.D., Ph.D., is the author of the new book Apocalypse Never: Forging the Path to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World. He is the Writing Fellow with the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the 1985 Nobel Peace Laureate organization. He has served as a speechwriter and policy advisor to members of Congress and has written for major newspapers nationwide. Come here him talk about his new book and what can be done to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons.

When: May 26 from 7-9 PM