? Washington (February 19, 2025) - Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) with Congressmen Don Beyer (VA-08) and John Garamendi (CA-08), co-chairs of the bicameral Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, today wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging him to replace the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), a nuclear arms agreement between the United States and Russia. On February 5, 2026, the 2010 New START Treaty between the United States and Russia will expire. Unless a new agreement is in place by that date, there will be no legal limits on U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear forces, reversing decades of work to reduce the risk of nuclear war. In their letter, the bicameral lawmakers urge Secretary Rubio to work with Congress to replace New START and prevent a dangerous and costly arms race between the United States and Russia.
In the letter the lawmakers write, “The Trump administration has a historic opportunity to initiate high-level talks for a new pact and, until those talks reach completion, to mutually agree to respect the limits of New START using existing technical means of verification. Given the time it would take to negotiate a new agreement, an executive understanding that both sides will adhere to New START limits would help to reduce uncertainty in this interim period.”
The lawmakers emphasize, “We condemn Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling against Ukraine. Russia’s illegal war against the Ukrainian people is at odds with our democratic ideals. Yet even when our nations have had profound disagreements, including during the Cold War, we managed to come to the table to bring the world back from the precipice of nuclear catastrophe.”
The letter was co-signed in the Senate by Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jack Reed (D-R.I), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Cory Booker (D-N.J), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Angus King (D-Maine), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and in the House of Representatives by Representatives Bill Foster (IL-11), Jim McGovern (MA-02), Gregory Meeks (NY-05), Eleanor Holmes-Norton (DC), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), and Lloyd Doggett (TX-37).
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