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 re-
ferred to the Committee on International Relations, and in addition to
the Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined 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;
•HCON 177 IH
Whereas the failure of computers to recognize the year 2000
date change could infect command, control, communica-
tions, and intelligence systems, causing false signals or
blank monitoring screens;
Whereas Russian monitoring and control systems are deterio-
rating;
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 pre-
emptive strike even more difficult;
Whereas much of the nuclear force of each country, including
submarines at sea and mobile land-based missiles, is al-
most 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 stand-
down of United States strategic bombers and de-alerted
some missiles, and Soviet President Gorbachev quickly
reciprocated with similar actions, improving bilateral re-
lations 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
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that—
•HCON 177 IH
(1) the United States, Russia, and other nu-
clear powers should negotiate an agreement to take
all of their nuclear weapons off of high-alert status
in order to decrease the risk of accidental or mis-
taken firing of nuclear weapons;
(2) to further such an agreement, the United
States should immediately take off of hair-trigger
alert as many of its nuclear weapons as is feasible
and consistent with national security, and should en-
courage Russia to reciprocate;
(3) the Department of Defense and the State
Department should study methods to increase fur-
ther the time needed to launch all nuclear missiles
and study the effect these actions would have on nu-
clear deterrence, relations with other recognized nu-
clear powers, the international nuclear nonprolifera-
tion regime, and other aspects of national security;
and
(4) the President should expedite the establish-
ment of a United States-Russian joint early-warning
center to ensure accurate detection of any missiles
and effective communication in the event of a false
alarm, computer malfunction, accident, or diplomatic
crisis, as set forth in the ‘‘Joint Statement on the
Exchange of Information on Missile Launches and
•HCON 177 IH
Early Warning’’, agreed to in 1998, and should fa-
cilitate the establishment of a temporary center be-
fore the end of 1999 that could address any prob-
lems which might arise due to the failure of com-
puters to recognize the year 2000 date change.
Æ