[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 317 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 317
Urging the United States to lead the world back from the brink of
nuclear war and halt and reverse the nuclear arms race.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 9, 2025
Mr. McGovern (for himself, Ms. Tokuda, Mr. Lieu, Mrs. Ramirez, Ms.
Velazquez, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Pingree, Mr. Thanedar, Ms. Lofgren, Ms.
Norton, Ms. Tlaib, Mr. Doggett, Ms. Bonamici, Ms. Omar, and Mr. Casar)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services,
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of
the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Urging the United States to lead the world back from the brink of
nuclear war and halt and reverse the nuclear arms race.
Whereas, since the height of the Cold War, the United States and Russia have
dismantled more than 50,000 nuclear warheads, but some 12,000 nuclear
weapons still exist and pose an intolerable risk to human survival;
Whereas the United States and Russia, which possess an estimated 95 percent of
these weapons, have a special responsibility to meet their obligations
under Article VI of the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to
``pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to
cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear
disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under
strict and effective international control'';
Whereas President Ronald Reagan said in his January 1984 State of the Union
Address that ``A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. The
only value in our two nations possessing nuclear weapons is to make sure
they will never be used. But then would it not be better to do away with
them entirely?'';
Whereas, according to scientific studies and models, the use of even a tiny
fraction of these weapons could cause worldwide climate disruption and
global famine by lofting millions of tons of soot into the upper
atmosphere, which would cause climate disruption across the planet,
cutting food production and putting hundreds of millions of people
worldwide at risk of death due to famine;
Whereas, according to numerous scientific studies and models, a large-scale
nuclear war would kill hundreds of millions of people directly and cause
unimaginable physical destruction and environmental damage, including
even more severe catastrophic climate disruption due to lower
temperatures across the planet not seen since the last ice age;
Whereas, during the course of the nuclear age, there have been technical
miscalculations, misinterpretations of adversary behavior, and crises
that have led to numerous nuclear near-misses that could have led to
nuclear war;
Whereas the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation and the
Kremlin's repeated explicit threats to use nuclear weapons have
significantly increased the risk of nuclear weapons use;
Whereas tensions elsewhere in the world, including between the United States and
China over Taiwan and the South China Sea, ongoing tensions between
India and Pakistan, and the chronic security crisis on the Korean
Peninsula, constitute other possible flashpoints for nuclear war;
Whereas, on October 6, 2022, President Biden said, ``I don't think there's any
such thing as an ability to easily use a tactical nuclear weapon and not
end up with Armageddon.'';
Whereas the United States retains a Cold War-era nuclear declaratory policy that
allows for the first use of nuclear weapons against nonnuclear threats
under ``extreme'' circumstances and retains a launch-under-attack
posture that unnecessarily compresses Presidential decision time to
launch nuclear weapons within minutes, thereby creating conditions that
increase the risk of unintentional or accidental nuclear war;
Whereas, in 2023, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that current
plans to modernize, upgrade, and maintain United States nuclear forces,
as described in the fiscal year 2023 budget and supporting documents,
would cost $756,000,000,000 over the 2023-2032 period, which was
$122,000,000,000 more than CBO's 2021 estimate for the 2021-2030 period;
Whereas, in October 2017, CBO estimated that the Nuclear Modernization Plan to
upgrade and enhance nearly every element of the nuclear arsenal of the
United States would result in costs of more than $1,200,000,000,000 over
the following 30 years, not adjusting for inflation;
Whereas Republican and Democratic administrations have negotiated multiple
agreements with the Russian Federation that have reduced their total
nuclear stockpiles by more than 80 percent since their Cold War peaks,
but in recent years have withdrawn from other global treaties and
agreements that have provided global stability and helped prevent the
proliferation of nuclear weapons, including the 1987 Intermediate
Nuclear Forces Treaty;
Whereas the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review states that ``[m]utual, verifiable
nuclear arms control offers the most effective, durable, and responsible
path to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our strategy and prevent
their use'';
Whereas the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which is the last
remaining treaty limiting the size of United States and Russian
strategic nuclear arsenals, will expire on February 5, 2026, and in the
absence of agreed following constraints, each side could significantly
increase the number of deployed warheads, thereby accelerating an
unconstrained, costly, and dangerous global nuclear arms race;
Whereas, on July 7, 2017, 122 nations voted to adopt the Treaty on the
Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which prohibits the possession, use,
testing, stationing, or transfer of nuclear weapons and creates an
important legal framework for the elimination of all nuclear weapons and
entered into force on January 22, 2021; and
Whereas the United States suspended nuclear explosive testing in 1992,
successfully led the negotiation of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test
Ban Treaty, which has been signed by 187 countries including the United
States and the other P-5 nuclear powers, and has effectively put an end
to nuclear test explosions, which can be used by newer nuclear powers
with the means to prove new warhead designs: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives calls on the President
to--
(1) actively pursue a world free of nuclear weapons as a
national security imperative; and
(2) lead a global effort to move the world back from the
nuclear brink, halt and reverse a global nuclear arms race, and
prevent nuclear war by--
(A) engaging in good faith negotiations with the
other 8 nuclear armed states to halt any further
buildup of nuclear arsenals and to aggressively pursue
a verifiable and irreversible agreement or agreements
to verifiably reduce and eliminate their nuclear
arsenals according to negotiated timetables, and, in
particular, pursuing and concluding new nuclear arms
control and disarmament arrangements with the Russian
Federation to prevent a buildup of nuclear forces
beyond current levels, and engaging with China on
mutual nuclear risk reduction and arms control
measures;
(B) leading the effort to have all nuclear-armed
states renounce the option of using nuclear weapons
first;
(C) implementing effective checks and balances on
the Commander in Chief's sole authority to order the
use of United States nuclear weapons;
(D) ending the Cold War-era ``hair-trigger alert''
posture, which increases the risk of catastrophic
miscalculation in a crisis;
(E) ending plans to produce and deploy new nuclear
warheads and delivery systems, which would reduce the
burden on United States taxpayers;
(F) maintaining the de facto global moratorium on
nuclear explosive testing;
(G) protecting communities and workers affected by
nuclear weapons by fully remediating the deadly legacy
of environmental contamination from past and current
nuclear weapons testing, development, production,
storage, and maintenance activities, and by providing
health monitoring, compensation, and medical care to
those who have and will be harmed by nuclear weapons
research, testing, and production, including through an
expanded Radiation Exposure Compensation Act program;
and
(H) actively planning a just economic transition
for the civilian and military workforce involved in the
development, testing, production, management, and
dismantlement of nuclear weapons and for the
communities that are economically dependent on nuclear
weapons laboratories, production facilities, and
military bases.
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