IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 77 

Embracing the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of 

Nuclear Weapons. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 31, 2023 

Mr. MCGOVERN (for himself, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. 

NORTON, and Ms. JAYAPAL) 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 

Embracing the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the 

Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 

Whereas since the height of the Cold War, the United States 

and Russia have dismantled more than 50,000 nuclear 

warheads, but 14,500 of these weapons still exist and 

pose an intolerable risk to human survival; 

Whereas 95 percent of these weapons are in the hands of the 

United States and Russia and the rest are held by seven 

other countries: China, France, Israel, India, North 

Korea, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom; 

Whereas the use of even a tiny fraction of these weapons 

could cause worldwide climate disruption and global famVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:10 Feb 01, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR77.IH HR77

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•HRES 77 IH 

ine—for example, a limited nuclear war in south Asia involving just 250 Hiroshima-sized 15 kiloton warheads 

could result in 52,000,000 direct fatalities, loft 

37,000,000 tons of soot into the upper atmosphere, and 

cause climate disruption across the planet, cutting food 

production and putting an estimated 930,000,000 people 

worldwide at risk of death due to famine over two years; 

Whereas according to scientific studies and models, a largescale nuclear war could kill hundreds of millions of people 

directly and cause unimaginable environmental damage 

and catastrophic climate disruption by dropping temperatures across the planet to levels not seen since the last 

ice age; under these conditions much of humanity might 

face starvation and humans might even be at grave risk 

as a species; 

Whereas despite assurances that these arsenals exist solely to 

guarantee that they are never used, there have been 

many occasions when nuclear armed states have prepared 

to use these weapons, and war has been averted only at 

the last minute; 

Whereas the current nuclear weapons policies of the United 

States do not inherently prevent their use; 

Whereas in the 2003 documentary, ‘‘The Fog of War: Eleven 

Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara’’, former 

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara said, when describing the Cuban Missile Crisis, ‘‘It was luck that prevented 

nuclear war’’—yet the nuclear policy of the United States 

should not be based on the hope that ‘‘luck’’ will continue; 

Whereas the United States intelligence community’s January 

29, 2019, annual assessment of worldwide threats warned 


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•HRES 77 IH 

that the effects of climate change and environmental degradation increase stress on communities around the world 

and intensify global instability and the likelihood of conflict, causing the danger of using nuclear weapons or nuclear war to grow; 

Whereas, in October 2017, the Congressional Budget Office 

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 30 years, not adjusting for 

inflation; 

Whereas, in May 2021, the Congressional Budget Office 

(CBO) projected that the plans for nuclear forces delineated in the Department of Defense’s and the Department of Energy’s fiscal year 2021 budget requests, submitted in February 2020, would cost a total of 

$634,000,000,000 over the 2021 to 2030 period, for an 

average of just over $60,000,000,000 a year, a 10-year 

total that is 28 percent higher than CBO’s most recent 

previous estimate; 

Whereas a February 6, 2018, report by the Government Accountability Office report warned that the ‘‘National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plans to modernize its nuclear weapons do not align with its budget, 

raising affordability concerns’’, thereby increasing the 

pressure on the defense budget and the implicit trade-offs 

within that budget, diverting crucial resources needed to 

assure the well-being of the American people and the 

ability to respond to global crises and priorities, increasing the potential risk of nuclear accidents, and helping 

fuel a global arms race; 


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•HRES 77 IH 

Whereas, on February 2, 2019, the United States and the 

Russian Federation withdrew from the IntermediateRange Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail 

Gorbachev, which has prohibited the development and deployment of ground-launched nuclear missiles with ranges 

of 310 miles to 3,420 miles, and has resulted in each 

country dismantling more than 2,500 missiles and has 

kept nuclear-tipped cruise missiles off the European continent for three decades, thus sparking increased concern 

in a renewed nuclear arms race between the two countries and other nuclear-armed nations; 

Whereas, on July 7, 2017, an alternative global nuclear policy was adopted by 122 nations by signing the Treaty on 

the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which calls for the 

elimination of all nuclear weapons; 

Whereas the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons 

entered into force on January 22, 2021; 

Whereas, on January 24, 2023, the Science and Security 

Board at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set their 

iconic Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds to midnight, the 

closest it has ever signaled how close humanity is to selfdestruction, and urged governments to take action to 

make the world safer; and 

Whereas the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation 

has increased the danger and potential of the use of nuclear weapons and nuclear war: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that the United States— 

3 (1) calls on the President to embrace the goals 

4 and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of 


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•HRES 77 IH 

1 Nuclear Weapons and make nuclear disarmament 

2 the centerpiece of the national security policy of the 

3 United States; and 

4 (2) calls on the Secretary of State, the Sec5 retary of Defense, all other Federal and congres6 sional leaders of the United States and the Amer7 ican people to lead a global effort to move the world 

8 back from the nuclear brink and to prevent nuclear 

9 war by— 

10 (A) actively pursuing and concluding nego11 tiations on a new, bilateral nuclear arms control 

12 and disarmament framework agreement with 

13 the Russian Federation before 2026 and pur14 suing negotiations with China and other nu15 clear-armed states on an agreement or agree16 ments for the verifiable, enforceable, and 

17 timebound elimination of global nuclear arse18 nals; 

19 (B) renouncing the option of using nuclear 

20 weapons first; 

21 (C) ending the President’s sole authority 

22 to launch a nuclear attack; 

23 (D) taking the nuclear weapons of the 

24 United States off hair-trigger alert; and 


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•HRES 77 IH 

1 (E) canceling the plan to replace the nu2 clear arsenal of the United States with modern3 ized, enhanced weapons. 

Æ 


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