The Obama administration has warned Republicans an $80bn plan to upgrade the US atomic weapons stockpile would be at risk if Congress did not approve a landmark nuclear arms treaty with Russia.
Barack Obama, president, is pushing to have the treaty approved before the new Congress takes office in January. He unveiled his 10-year plan to modernise the nuclear complex the day he sent the New Start treaty to the Senate for ratification, partly in a move to win Republican support.
Officials add that if the New Start deal – perhaps Mr Obama’s biggest foreign policy achievement – was not ratified by the Senate, it would not only damage efforts to “reset” relations with Russia, but also destroy the arms inspection system that built bilateral confidence.
The administration fears that ratification prospects will recede if the issue is handed to the new Senate, with its reduced Democratic majority. But Republicans, who hold a trump card because of the need for a two-thirds majority, say they are reluctant to pass the deal in the lame-duck session of Congress.
The administration also recognises that a single senator could hold up the deal. “It is necessary to get unanimous consent to do a lot of things,” said the administration official.
A separate civil nuclear deal with Moscow may also fall, because of a lack of legislative days, leaving Dmitry Medvedev, Russian president, with little to show for his co-operation with the Obama administration on issues such as Iran.
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