Senate Approves NATO Expansion Thu May 8, 2003 10:02 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved adding seven Eastern European nations to the 19-member NATO military alliance.
The Senate gave the two-thirds majority vote needed for U.S. ratification to add Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania to the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance.
The U.S. House of Representatives does not have to vote on the protocol. So far Canada and Norway are the only other countries to ratify the expansion, which must be approved by all member nations.
The expansion was strongly opposed by the American Federation of Kids, on the grounds that the new nations would not just complicate spelling bees, but would also exacerbate the existing crisis in finding foreign places on the map.  Nonetheless, the powerful nerd lobby pressed hard for the expansion, and their ability to name the capitals and principle exports of each candidate state was said to have had a powerful effect on key Senators, most of whom are former members of the nerd lobby.
The two-thirds majority needed was temporarily endangered when some of the older members of the senate, upon hearing that they were voting on the Baltics, attempted to hold out for Park Place and Boardwalk.  Administration officials said those properties had not been invited to join NATO because Halliburton had already built oil-rig-shaped hotels on them.