Washington ( CNN ) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the lame-duck Senate on Wednesday to ratify the new Russian nuclear arms control treaty , warning that a failure to do so would undermine a critical need for `` stability , transparency and predictability . '' Clinton , appearing on Capitol Hill to push for approval of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty , said the administration intends `` to do everything we can during this lame-duck session to get a vote to ratify this treaty . '' `` This is not an issue that can afford to be postponed , '' she said . Clinton was joined by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry , D-Massachusetts , and Sen. Richard Lugar , R-Indiana , the top Republican on the committee . All three noted that there have been no American `` boots on the ground '' inspecting the Russian nuclear arsenal since the expiration of the old treaty last December . Russia still has thousands of nuclear weapons , Lugar warned , and `` any one of those warheads could obliterate the city of Indianapolis , '' a reference to the capital of his home state . This is an `` existential problem for our country , '' he said . Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen later said he is `` extremely concerned '' that nearly a year has passed since the expiration of the old treaty . `` The military leadership across the board in the United States ... supports moving forward with this treaty and I hope we can do that as rapidly as possible . '' If approved , the new START treaty would restart mutual inspections while limiting the United States and Russia to 1,550 warheads and 700 launchers each . Top Democrats were stunned Tuesday when Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl , the Republican point man for Senate deliberations over the treaty , said in a statement that he had told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nevada , that the accord should not be considered before January , when the newly elected Congress is seated . He said he did n't think the current Senate should ratify the treaty `` given the combination of other work Congress must do and the complex and unresolved issues related to START and modernization . '' The White House learned about Kyl 's opposition to taking up the vote during the lame-duck session `` via the press , '' according to a senior administration official . The White House , which has already committed $ 80 billion to nuclear modernization efforts , recently promised to spend $ 4 billion in an effort to win the support of Kyl and other conservatives . `` We 're talking . In good faith , '' Kyl told CNN on Wednesday as he walked into a Senate vote while escorted by Kerry . Alarmed Democrats have repeatedly warned it would be dangerous to further delay consideration of the treaty . On Tuesday , Vice President Joe Biden called the pact , among other things , `` a fundamental part of our relationship with Russia , which has been critical to our ability to supply our troops in Afghanistan and to impose and enforce strong sanctions on the Iranian government . '' The vice president said the administration will continue to seek Senate approval of the treaty before the end of the year . A two-thirds Senate vote is required to approve the measure ; the more conservative incoming Senate is believed to be less likely to ratify the accord . Seventy-three percent of Americans believe the Senate should ratify the treaty , according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday . Twenty-three percent are opposed to its approval . Russia has not approved the measure yet . CNN 's Alan Silverleib , Jill Dougherty , and Laurie Ure contributed to this report .
NEW : Adm. Hillary Clinton voices support for ratification of the new the White House treaty . Mike Mullen urges the the White House to approve the treaty in the lame-duck session . Clinton , Kerry and Lugar warn that U.S. inspections of Russia 's arsenal stopped last December . Russian worry that the White House is n't doing enough to modernize the U.S. arsenal .