START Picks Up Two Key Republican Votes

Photo Courtesy - Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The Obama administration and Senate Democrats on Friday picked up two important Republican votes for the New START nuclear treaty with Russia when Maine senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins threw their support behind the pact.

The backing of Snowe and Collins, the two moderate GOP lawmakers from Maine, means three Republican senators have now said they will vote for the treaty. Sen. Dick Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was the first.

The treaty must receive 67 votes for Senate ratification, so Democrats will need to secure more GOP support to pass the pact.

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