119-hres317

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 317 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

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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