I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7260 
To reduce and eliminate threats posed by nuclear weapons to the United 
States, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 18, 2020 
Mr. MCGOVERN (for himself, Ms. TITUS, and Mr. BLUMENAUER) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Serv-
ices, and in addition to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a period 
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
concerned 
A BILL 
To reduce and eliminate threats posed by nuclear weapons 
to the United States, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Hastening Arms Limi-
tations Talks Act of 2020’’ or the ‘‘HALT Act of 2020’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
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(1) The use of nuclear weapons poses an exis-
tential threat to humanity, a fact that led President 
Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorba-
chev to declare in a joint statement in 1987 that a 
‘‘nuclear war cannot be won and must never be 
fought’’. 
(2) On June 12, 1982, an estimated 1,000,000 
people attended the largest peace rally in United 
States history, in support of a movement to freeze 
and reverse the nuclear arms race, a movement that 
helped to create the political will necessary for the 
negotiation of several bilateral arms control treaties 
between the United States and former Soviet Union, 
and then the Russian Federation. Those treaties 
contributed to strategic stability through mutual and 
verifiable reciprocal nuclear weapons reductions. 
(3) Since the advent of nuclear weapons in 
1945, millions of people around the world have stood 
up to demand meaningful, immediate international 
action to halt, reduce, and eliminate the threats 
posed by nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons testing, 
and nuclear war, to humankind and the planet. 
(4) In 1970, the Treaty on the Non-Prolifera-
tion of Nuclear Weapons done at Washington, Lon-
don, and Moscow July 1, 1968 (21 UST 483) (com-
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monly referred to as the ‘‘Nuclear Non-Proliferation 
Treaty’’ or the ‘‘NPT’’), entered into force, which 
includes a binding obligation on the 5 nuclear-weap-
on states (commonly referred to as the ‘‘P5’’), 
among other things, ‘‘to pursue negotiations in good 
faith on effective measures relating to the cessation 
of the nuclear arms race . . . and to nuclear disar-
mament’’. 
(5) Bipartisan United States global leadership 
has curbed the growth in the number of countries 
possessing nuclear weapons and has slowed overall 
vertical proliferation among countries already pos-
sessing nuclear weapons, as is highlighted by a more 
than 85-percent reduction in the United States nu-
clear weapons stockpile from its Cold War height of 
31,255 in 1967. 
(6) The United States testing of nuclear weap-
ons is no longer necessary as a result of the fol-
lowing major technical developments since the Sen-
ate’s consideration of the Comprehensive Nuclear- 
Test-Ban Treaty (commonly referred to as the 
‘‘CTBT’’) in 1999: 
(A) The verification architecture of the 
Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty Orga-
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nization 
(commonly 
referred 
to 
as 
the 
‘‘CTBTO’’)— 
(i) has made significant advance-
ments, as seen through its network of 300 
International Monitoring Stations and its 
International Data Centre, which together 
provide for the near instantaneous detec-
tion of nuclear explosives tests, including 
all 6 such tests conducted by North Korea 
between 2006 and 2017; and 
(ii) is operational 24 hours a day, 7 
days a week. 
(B) Since the United States signed the 
CTBT, confidence has grown in the science- 
based Stockpile Stewardship and Management 
Plan of the Department of Energy, which forms 
the basis of annual certifications to the Presi-
dent regarding the continual safety, security, 
and effectiveness of the United States nuclear 
deterrent in the absence of nuclear testing, 
leading former Secretary of Energy Ernest 
Moniz to remark in 2015 that ‘‘lab directors 
today now state that they certainly understand 
much more about how nuclear weapons work 
than during the period of nuclear testing’’. 
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(7) Despite the progress made to reduce the 
number and role of, and risks posed by, nuclear 
weapons, and to halt the Cold War-era nuclear arms 
race, tensions between countries that possess nuclear 
weapons are on the rise, key nuclear risk reduction 
treaties are under threat, significant stockpiles of 
weapons-usable fissile material remain, and a quali-
tative global nuclear arms race is now underway 
with each of the countries that possess nuclear 
weapons spending tens of billions of dollars each 
year to maintain and improve their arsenals. 
(8) The United States and the Russian Federa-
tion are both pursuing the development of desta-
bilizing types of nuclear weapons, including new 
lower-yield nuclear weapons that are more usable, 
and the People’s Republic of China, India, Pakistan, 
and North Korea have each taken concerning steps 
to diversify their more modest, but nonetheless very 
deadly, nuclear arsenals. 
(9) Since January 2017, President Donald 
Trump has taken the following actions, which have 
run counter to the objectives of the Creating an En-
vironment for Nuclear Disarmament (commonly re-
ferred to as ‘‘CEND’’) initiative that his administra-
tion launched in 2018: 
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