Now that President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have signed the nuclear disarmament treaty, the Senate must approve it with a supermajority vote, but it’s not clear that can happen this year as the Obama administration hopes.

It will take 67 senators to ratify the new treaty, a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which means at least eight Republicans must endorse it, assuming it wins the support of all 57 Democrats and two independents.

The GOP reception has so far been lukewarm at best, with hints from the Senate Republican leadership that ratification could be difficult.