IV

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 177

Expressing the sense of the Congress that nuclear weapons should be taken

off hair-trigger alert.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

AUGUST 5, 1999

Mr. MARKEY submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations, 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

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Congress that nuclear weapons

should be taken off hair-trigger alert.

Whereas accidental or mistaken launch of a nuclear missile

could devastate a city, and launch of a nuclear force

could wreak worldwide destruction;

Whereas the United States and Russia currently maintain

thousands of nuclear weapons on ‘‘hair-trigger’’ alert,

such that they can be fired within minutes;

Whereas in several incidents false signals of missile attacks

have triggered a process in which national leaders had to

decide in only a few minutes whether to fire nuclear

weapons;
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Whereas the failure of computers to recognize the year 2000

date change could infect command, control, communications, and intelligence systems, causing false signals or

blank monitoring screens;

Whereas Russian monitoring and control systems are deteriorating;

Whereas a massive preemptive attack attempting to destroy

the nuclear weapons capability of either Russia or the

United States is extremely unlikely, and mutual measures

to slow the firing of nuclear weapons would make a preemptive strike even more difficult;

Whereas much of the nuclear force of each country, including

submarines at sea and mobile land-based missiles, is almost invulnerable and thus would preserve retaliatory

ability through a nuclear attack, making immediate firing

of weapons unnecessary;

Whereas President Bush in 1991 ordered a unilateral standdown of United States strategic bombers and de-alerted

some missiles, and Soviet President Gorbachev quickly

reciprocated with similar actions, improving bilateral relations and national security;

Whereas removing further missiles from hair-trigger alert

would help alleviate recent tensions between Russia and

the United States; and

Whereas there are several ways that land and submarine

based weapons could be temporarily disabled, with times

ranging from minutes to weeks in order to reactivate

them: Now, therefore be it

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that—
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1 (1) the United States, Russia, and other nu2 clear powers should negotiate an agreement to take

3 all of their nuclear weapons off of high-alert status

4 in order to decrease the risk of accidental or mis5 taken firing of nuclear weapons;

6 (2) to further such an agreement, the United

7 States should immediately take off of hair-trigger

8 alert as many of its nuclear weapons as is feasible

9 and consistent with national security, and should en10 courage Russia to reciprocate;

11 (3) the Department of Defense and the State

12 Department should study methods to increase fur13 ther the time needed to launch all nuclear missiles

14 and study the effect these actions would have on nu15 clear deterrence, relations with other recognized nu16 clear powers, the international nuclear nonprolifera17 tion regime, and other aspects of national security;

18 and

19 (4) the President should expedite the establish20 ment of a United States-Russian joint early-warning

21 center to ensure accurate detection of any missiles

22 and effective communication in the event of a false

23 alarm, computer malfunction, accident, or diplomatic

24 crisis, as set forth in the ‘‘Joint Statement on the

25 Exchange of Information on Missile Launches and
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1 Early Warning’’, agreed to in 1998, and should fa2 cilitate the establishment of a temporary center be3 fore the end of 1999 that could address any prob4 lems which might arise due to the failure of com5 puters to recognize the year 2000 date change.

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