The treaty has never come to the Senate floor for a vote because of strong opposition from conservatives. Senator Jesse Helms, longtime chairman of the Foreign Relation Committee, blocked it for many years. Then-Senate Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist also kept it away from the Senate floor, insisting that its flaws be exposed and studied by the Senate. The liberal Democratic takeover of Congress in 2006 moved the measure up for action. Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and his advisor and staff director, Antony Blinken, a former Clinton Administration official, have decided that now is the time to act.Biden is also being pressured to move the International Criminal Court treaty forward.
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