2001 to 2003 and from 2007 until his retirement in 2015. He became the Democratic ranking member on the committee on January 7, 1997, and served in that position when the Democratic Party was in the minority. Levin previously chaired the committee when the Democratic Party was the majority party in the Senate, January 3–20, 2001 and June 6, 2001 – January 6, 2003. Levin joined the Armed Services Committee upon joining the Senate. Recalling when he was assigned the committee seat, he said that he wanted to learn more about the armed services. "I had never served, and I thought there was a big gap in terms of my background and, frankly, felt it was a way of providing service." He was a strong advocate for cost controls regarding military procurements. He has also pushed for less secrecy in government, working to declassify many documents, particularly where false and misleading claims of ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda are concerned. Having believed that in order to improve the military the United States needed to shut down unneeded installations and get rid of excess infrastructure, Levin helped lead passage of the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act, which closed some military bases. Levin supported the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, ensuring that all nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons from post-Soviet states, are secured and dismantled. Levin argued that Nunn-Lugar presented "a chance to bury the new Hitlers and Stalins of that region before they have a chance to take root." After members of the U.S. House of Representatives and then-Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) threatened to redirect funds from the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, Levin joined a bipartisan group of senators in opposition to the 20% reduction in funding. In 2003, he voted in favor of the Nunn-Lugar Expansion Act, expanding the provisions to non-Soviet countries, and in 2005 cosponsored Senate Amendment 1030, removing congressionally imposed restrictions that delay the implementations of 2003 expansion act. In 1992, he voted to ratify the START I treaty, and for the ratification of START II in 1996, banning MIRV's and Intercontinental ballistic missiles. In 2010, Levin voted in favor of the New START Treaty, extending the original treaty until 2021 and reducing both the U.S. and Russia's deployed strategic nuclear arsenal, by almost two-thirds. In an op-ed in The Hill, Levin said that, "This treaty is a strong statement that the United States is committed