A November 22nd USA Today article by Mimi Hall and David Jackson titled START ratification becomes major test for Obama reports:

Opposition in the Senate has intensified since Republicans narrowed the Democrats’ majority in the Nov. 2 elections. Now, Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, a GOP leader key to rounding up or quashing votes, says consideration of the treaty should wait until next year because the Senate has too much other work on its plate between now and Christmas break.

Kyl says the nation needs to focus on “complex and unresolved issues” related to maintaining and modernizing its aging arsenal before it starts reducing warheads.

Nuclear modernization has been key for Kyl, but there are plenty of other Senators who have voiced concerns on other issues which Hall and Jackson ignore. For example, New START places at least five new restrictions on U.S. missile defense capabilities: (1) Paragraph 9 of the Preamble explicitly links missile defense and offensive nuclear weapons; (2) Paragraph 3 of Article V prohibits conversion of offensive strategic missile launchers to launchers of defensive interceptors and vice versa; (3) an array of provisions limit and restrict certain types of missiles and missile launchers that are used as targets in missile defense tests; (4) Article XII and Part Six of the Protocol create an implementing body, called the Bilateral Consultative Commission, that could impose additional restrictions on the U.S. missile defense program; and (5) Article IX, Part Seven of the Protocol, and the Annex on Telemetric Information to the Protocol could be interpreted in a way that could lead the U.S. to share telemetric information from missile defense tests. This information could be used to undermine the effectiveness of our missile defenses.