IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 54 
Reaffirming the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States 
must lead the world in preventing further nuclear proliferation, while 
also reducing and eventually eliminating all nuclear weapons. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 21, 2021 
Mr. BEYER (for himself, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. FOSTER, Mr. COHEN, 
Mr. CASE, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. LANGEVIN, Mrs. CAROLYN B. 
MALONEY of New York, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. HUFFMAN, 
Mr. COSTA, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. CARSON, and Mr. LEVIN 
of Michigan) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Reaffirming the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the United States must lead the world in preventing 
further nuclear proliferation, while also reducing and 
eventually eliminating all nuclear weapons. 
Whereas, in the 1984 State of the Union Address, President 
Reagan said, ‘‘A nuclear war cannot be won and must 
never be fought’’; 
Whereas the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons has been a 
bedrock principle of United States foreign policy since 
1945; 
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Whereas the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear 
Weapons was ratified by the United States in 1968, and 
extended indefinitely in 1995, and depends upon the full 
implementation by all States Parties of three mutually 
reinforcing pillars: nonproliferation, access to peaceful 
uses of nuclear energy under safeguards, and disar-
mament; 
Whereas the United States maintains a safe, secure, and ef-
fective nuclear deterrent to provide for the national de-
fense of the United States and to bolster the security of 
the allies of the United States, while also pursuing a 
number of arms control, disarmament, and nonprolifera-
tion agreements designed to end dangerous nuclear com-
petition and the spread of nuclear weapons-related tech-
nologies and to ensure strategic stability, reduce nuclear 
risks, and protect the United States homeland and allies 
of the United States; 
Whereas the United States is now at risk of losing all the 
agreements that have underpinned strategic stability and 
nuclear risk reduction; 
Whereas the Treaty between the United States of America 
and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimi-
nation of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range 
Missiles (in this resolution referred to as the ‘‘INF Trea-
ty’’) successfully led to the total ban on the possession, 
production, and flight-testing of land-based nuclear and 
conventional ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and missile 
launchers with ranges of 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilo-
meters; 
Whereas, as a result of the INF Treaty, the United States 
and the Soviet Union destroyed a total of 2,692 short- 
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, medium-, and intermediate-range missiles by the trea-
ty’s implementation deadline of June 1, 1991; 
Whereas the United States formally withdrew from the INF 
Treaty on August 2, 2019, with no plan to avert a new 
and destabilizing intermediate-range missile arms race; 
Whereas the Treaty on Open Skies, signed in 1992 and in 
effect since 2002, is a vital instrument of confidence- 
building and verification for the United States and the 
allies of the United States; 
Whereas the Treaty on Open Skies has permitted unarmed 
surveillance flights over the territories of 34 countries, in-
cluding Russia, with the purpose of enhancing mutual 
understanding of the military forces and activities of con-
cern to them; 
Whereas, on May 22, 2020, the President announced his in-
tent to withdraw from the Treaty on Open Skies in six 
months due to continued concerns over compliance with 
the Treaty’s provisions by Russia; 
Whereas this announcement, and the subsequent November 
22 withdrawal from the Treaty on Open Skies, did not 
comply with section 1234 of the National Defense Au-
thorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (Public Law 116– 
92; 133 Stat. 1648; 22 U.S.C. 2593a note) that requires 
the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State to 
notify Congress at least 120 days before a formal notice 
is sent to treaty depositories about an intent to leave the 
Treaty on Open Skies, and was made despite objections 
expressed by United States allies; 
Whereas the Treaty between the United States of America 
and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further 
Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (in 
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this resolution referred to as the ‘‘New START Treaty’’) 
entered into force on February 5, 2011, and is scheduled 
to expire on February 5, 2021, unless the United States 
and Russia agree to extend the Treaty by a period of up 
to five years; 
Whereas the New START Treaty has strengthened the nu-
clear security and strategic stability of the United States 
by reducing the number of strategic systems in Russia’s 
nuclear arsenal and providing the United States with the 
inspection and monitoring tools necessary to confidently 
verify Russian compliance with the Treaty; 
Whereas maintaining legally binding, verifiable limits on Rus-
sian strategic nuclear forces is in the national security in-
terest of the United States; 
Whereas the Department of State has repeatedly verified that 
Russia is in full compliance with the New START Trea-
ty, including most recently in the June 2020 report to 
Congress on ‘‘Adherence to and Compliance with Arms 
Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements 
and Commitments’’; 
Whereas the New START Treaty has not and does not re-
strict the nuclear modernization programs of the United 
States nor limit the missile defense efforts of the United 
States, and the United States continues to assure allies 
of guarantees by the United States to their security; 
Whereas if the New START Treaty is allowed to expire, the 
United States will be faced with an unconstrained Rus-
sian nuclear arsenal for the first time since 1972, and 
the United States will be discarding decades of progress 
to maintain nuclear deterrence at a much lower level of 
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strategic nuclear arsenals, from which the United States, 
NATO, and other allies have all benefitted; 
Whereas a perceived retreat by the United States from arms 
control and international affairs more broadly has caused 
allies and partners across the globe to doubt the United 
States commitment to meet its own nuclear disarmament 
obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of 
Nuclear Weapons, which could compromise United States 
efforts to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation system; 
Whereas Congress has historically taken a bipartisan ap-
proach to arms control initiatives, including the bipar-
tisan vote of 71–26 in the Senate to provide its advice 
and consent to the ratification of the New START Trea-
ty on December 22, 2010, demonstrating that Congress 
can be a close partner with the executive branch in the 
shaping of the arms control policies of the United States; 
and 
Whereas there are bipartisan bills in Congress to urge an ex-
tension of the New START Treaty, the last remaining 
treaty constraining the world’s two largest nuclear arse-
nals, and former officials who served under Republican 
and Democratic administrations, military leaders, and 
nuclear policy experts agree that the Treaty should be ex-
tended: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) reaffirms that effective arms control trea-
ties, and other confidence-building and verification 
agreements, that successfully limit and reduce nu-
clear weapons and curb nuclear competition are im-
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portant tools that strengthen the security of the 
United States and international security; 
(2) strongly supports a sustained and intensive 
dialogue with Russia and China to reduce the 
threats posed by nuclear weapons, and underscores 
that effective arms control has always been an area 
of crucial and necessary dialogue, even during the 
lowest points in bilateral and multilateral relations; 
(3) recognizes that the United States and Rus-
sia, which possess more than 90 percent of the 
world’s 13,000 nuclear weapons, have a special re-
sponsibility to reduce the nuclear danger, and are 
committed to do so under the Treaty on the Non- 
Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; 
(4) calls on the President to extend the New 
START Treaty for five years without further delay 
to give the United States, in consultation with allies, 
the time and space needed to pursue a broader, 
more comprehensive arms control agenda with Rus-
sia and China that addresses all types of nuclear 
weapons and emerging technologies that can affect 
strategic stability; and 
(5) calls on the administration to consider con-
tinued participation in the Treaty on Open Skies, 
which allies, partners, and arms control experts all 
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agree is a vital instrument of confidence-building 
and verification for the United States and its objec-
tives for promoting international security and stra-
tegic stability. 
Æ 
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