The ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wants to know why Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is sitting on millions of dollars in taxpayer money rather than shifting it to the Broadcasting Board of Governors for anti-censorship work in China and other repressive regimes. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) wrote to Clinton on Friday after learning the BBG has yet to receive funding from the State Department. The BBG, which oversees government-sponsored international broadcasting, would like to use the money to ensure its content is accessible. The so-called Great Firewall of …
The New START Treaty, a treaty signed between the U.S. and Russia, is promoted by the Obama Administration as a means toward a reduction of nuclear weapons between the nations. Senator Richard Lugar (R–IN), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told C-SPAN (according to The Hill) that “a ‘large majority’ of members in his party will back [the treaty] and that it will be ratified.” Lugar is the only Republican to pledge support to date, and any prediction of this controversial treaty passing in a lame duck session …
You can always tell you’re winning a policy debate when your opponent starts name-calling. Now that Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has pulled New START off his Senate Foreign Relations Committee schedule, that’s exactly what the treaty’s supporters are doing. So Brent Scowcroft, U.S. National Security Advisor under President Gerald Ford, tells The Washington Post that the treaty is losing support because “some just don’t want to give Obama a victory” before the midterm elections. And Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) tells The Associated Press: “We are in the midst of an …
If the Senate doesn’t ratify New START, proponents of the arms-control agreement fear, then … well, the world will come to end. The latest warning came from Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a foundation that advocates a nuclear weapons-free world. “A delayed ratification with a close vote would be a blow to U.S. leadership around the world,” he told the Associated Press, “People would doubt the president’s ability to negotiate other agreements.” More pressure to just “sign the treaty so we can purge the world of nuclear weapons” …
Senator Carl Levin (D–MI), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released an op-ed last week arguing that the new START Treaty is good for the U.S. and the world. This follows similar op-eds from Sen. John Kerry (D–MA) and Sen. Richard Lugar (R–IN). Given the number of such publications over the past couple of weeks, it is becoming clear that this treaty is finally getting the level of attention it deserves. It is also becoming increasingly evident that this Administration is worried the opposition voice is growing stronger. In …
The new Broadcasting Board of Governors, announced on Friday by the Obama White House, have their work cut out for them. For a variety of not very satisfactory reasons, the U.S. broadcasting entities (Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, et al.) on whom the federal government spends $745 million a year of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money, have been without strong leadership and management for an unconscionably long period. Members of the board whose terms have long since expired have been doing yeoman service holding down the fort at the BBG …
In a week dominated by new START op-eds, Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) penned another piece supporting treaty ratification while rejecting the arguments of former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) from earlier this week. This follows the article by Senator Kerry (D-MA) also in support of new START. For Sen. Kerry opposing the treaty is “political,” for Sen. Lugar the arguments of Romney were “hyperbolic. Getting down to the sheer facts of the matter, however, make it clear that opposing the treaty is simply in the best interest of United States security. …
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held its second hearing this week on the New START Treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation. Led by the chair of the committee, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), and ranking minority member, Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN), a number of senators addressed several areas of concern with the witnesses, the Honorable James N. Miller, Jr., Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; General Kevin P. Chilton, Commander US Strategic Command; and Lieutenant General Patrick J. O’Reilly, Director of the Missile Defense Agency. Gen. O’Reilly …
Kudos to Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) for recognizing that current “rhetoric and legislation [which] are focused primarily at climate change” are out of step with the concerns of most Americans. A January poll by Pew Research Center found “dealing with global warming ranks at the bottom of the public’s list of priorities; just 28% consider this a top priority.” The Senator frames his new approach in this way:
