IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 278 
Recognizing the paramount need to address the threat of international ter-
rorism and protect the international security of the United States by 
reducing the number of and accessibility to nuclear weapons and pre-
venting their proliferation, and directing a portion of the resulting sav-
ings towards child survival, hunger, and universal education, and calling 
on the President to take action to achieve these goals. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 24, 2009 
Mr. MCGOVERN (for himself and Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California) sub-
mitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing the paramount need to address the threat of 
international terrorism and protect the international se-
curity of the United States by reducing the number 
of and accessibility to nuclear weapons and preventing 
their proliferation, and directing a portion of the result-
ing savings towards child survival, hunger, and universal 
education, and calling on the President to take action 
to achieve these goals. 
Whereas the United States and the Russian Federation have 
in the past entered into arms control treaties providing 
for reductions of several thousand nuclear delivery sys-
tems, including the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 
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•HRES 278 IH 
1991 (START I), the Intermediate Range Nuclear 
Forces Treaty of 1987 (INF), and the Treaty of Moscow 
of 2002; 
Whereas both countries still will retain several thousand nu-
clear weapons, their delivery systems, and supporting in-
frastructure at an annual cost of many billions of dollars; 
Whereas the United States and the Russian Federation now 
face different threats to their security since the end of 
the Cold War, notably that of international terrorism; 
Whereas international terrorism, particularly the danger 
posed by a terrorist entity acquiring a nuclear explosive 
device, requires that the countries redouble efforts to pre-
vent the proliferation of such devices and the technology 
to produce them; 
Whereas since 1992, the Cooperative Threat Reduction 
(CTR) program of assistance to the Russian Federation 
and certain other states of the former Soviet Union, initi-
ated under the leadership of Senators Sam Nunn and 
Richard Lugar, has proven an effective and necessary 
tool to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass de-
struction at a cost far below that of maintaining such 
weapons; 
Whereas additional reductions in nuclear armaments of both 
the United States and the Russian Federation, together 
with other nuclear powers, will— 
(1) meet the objective of the eventual elimination of 
nuclear weapons as prescribed in article VI of the Treaty 
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the vi-
sion of a nuclear-weapon-free world of Presidents Reagan 
and Gorbachev at the Reykjavik Summit of 1986; 
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(2) reduce the number of nuclear weapons subject to 
diversion or theft by terrorist groups; and 
(3) eventually make available additional funds in the 
range of tens of billions of dollars to further enhance 
international security by reducing world poverty, thereby 
addressing one of the factors contributing to inter-
national terrorism; 
Whereas the United States and the Russian Federation, com-
mitted by international agreement as well as joint com-
mitments by their respective Presidents, will reduce nu-
clear armaments in coming years and will encourage 
other countries to do likewise; 
Whereas the Task Force on Department of Energy Non-
proliferation Programs with Russia, commonly known as 
the Baker-Cutler Task Force, recommended in its final 
report of January 10, 2001, significant increases in the 
amounts of funding devoted to securing nuclear arsenals 
and other weapons of mass destruction; 
Whereas the savings generated in the long term by significant 
reduction of nuclear armaments will be appreciable, with 
estimates as high as $13,000,000,000 annually, even in 
the face of the real costs of eliminating a large portion 
of the nuclear arsenals of both the Russian Federation 
and the United States; 
Whereas on March 22, 2002, President George W. Bush stat-
ed that ‘‘We fight against poverty because hope is an an-
swer to terror. We fight against poverty because oppor-
tunity is a fundamental right to human dignity. We fight 
against poverty because faith requires it and conscience 
demands it. We fight against poverty with a growing con-
viction that major progress is within our reach.’’; 
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Whereas the 2002 National Security Strategy of the United 
States of America noted that ‘‘a world where some live 
in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives 
on less than $2 per day, is neither just nor stable. In-
cluding all of the world’s poor in an expanding circle of 
development—and opportunity—is a moral imperative 
and one of the top priorities of U.S. international policy’’; 
Whereas the final report of the National Commission on Ter-
rorist Attacks Upon the United States (more commonly 
known as the 9/11 Commission Report), issued on July 
22, 2004, recommended that a comprehensive U.S. strat-
egy to counter terrorism should include policies that en-
courage development, more open societies, and opportuni-
ties that improve the lives of families and enhance pros-
pects for their children’s futures; 
Whereas President Barack Obama has called for substantial 
verifiable reductions in the nuclear arsenals of the United 
States and the Russian Federation; 
Whereas addressing the needs of the very poor in the world, 
particularly children, reduces a source of international 
tension and local despair that contribute to terrorist ini-
tiatives; 
Whereas despite significant progress worldwide in reducing 
child mortality rates over time, the United Nations Chil-
dren’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that 9,200,000 chil-
dren under the age of 5 die every year, mostly from pre-
ventable and treatable causes; 
Whereas investing in the health and nutrition of children and 
their mothers is a sound economic decision and one of 
the surest ways for a country to set its course toward a 
better future; 
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Whereas international health experts estimate that an addi-
tional $5,000,000,000 each year in global assistance for 
proven child survival interventions could save the lives of 
6,000,000 young children each year; 
Whereas in sub-Saharan Africa, UNICEF and other organi-
zations estimate that scaling up a minimum package of 
existing interventions delivered through effective, commu-
nity-based health services could cut the region’s child 
mortality rate by 30 percent, and the maternal mortality 
rate by 15 percent, at an estimated annual cost of $1,000 
for each life saved; 
Whereas the United States supports child survival programs 
to meet the needs of children in poor countries through 
its contributions to international organizations and sup-
port for bilateral and multilateral programs; 
Whereas according to the United Nations World Food Pro-
gramme, more than 300,000,000 children suffer from 
chronic hunger, and an estimated 121,000,000 of these 
children, two-thirds of whom are girls, do not attend 
school; 
Whereas providing nutritious meals in schools has proven to 
be one of the most effective strategies to increase school 
attendance and enrollment, particularly among girls, de-
crease the incidence of hunger and malnutrition in 
school-age children, and help create literate, self-sus-
taining, and healthy societies; 
Whereas the United States supports programs to address 
chronic hunger and malnutrition and promote universal 
education among adolescent and school-age children; 
Whereas the World Food Programme and the Food and Agri-
cultural Organization of the United Nations estimate 
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that an additional $5,000,000,000 annually in global as-
sistance for school feeding and other food supports could 
eliminate hunger and malnutrition among the world’s 
school-age children; 
Whereas Americans consistently rank child survival and end-
ing hunger in poor countries as a top priority of United 
States foreign assistance; and 
Whereas President Barack Obama has committed the United 
States to new leadership in the international campaign to 
reduce by half global hunger and poverty by 2015: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Global Security 
Priorities Resolution’’. 
SEC. 2. SENSE OF THE HOUSE. 
It is the sense of the House of Representatives that— 
(1) the President should continue both negotia-
tions with other countries and unilateral initiatives 
to achieve further reductions in nuclear arms to 
minimum levels; 
(2) the President should agree to the verifiable 
reduction of deployed nuclear weapons of both the 
United States and the Russian Federation to equal 
levels of 1,000, and a total nuclear inventory of not 
more than 3,000, by the year 2015; 
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•HRES 278 IH 
(3) the Cooperative Threat Reduction (Nunn- 
Lugar) Program should be enhanced and extended 
to third countries who request it as a truly coopera-
tive, equally funded program between the United 
States and the Russian Federation to assist in the 
reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons 
throughout the world and to establish an environ-
ment of assurance that nuclear explosive material 
will not and cannot be diverted into the hands of 
terrorists; and 
(4) the funds saved through nuclear arms re-
ductions should be used for cooperative threat reduc-
tion and to alleviate those problems in the world af-
fecting children and families that can contribute to 
the support for international terrorism, including— 
(A) as a first priority, allocating funds an-
nually to extend the Cooperative Threat Reduc-
tion Program (Nunn-Lugar) at a rate of at 
least an additional $1,000,000,000 per year, 
and increased as warranted, to dismantle re-
maining weapons, establish verifiable safe-
guards, and improve accounting and physical 
security; 
(B) increasing United States contributions 
to such programs as the Global Partnership 
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Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials 
of Mass Destruction and the Global Threat Re-
duction 
Initiative 
by 
an 
additional 
$2,500,000,000 annually over a period of 5 
years, if and when it can be demonstrated that 
these programs can usefully absorb these funds; 
(C) in addition to funds already available 
for such purposes, providing an additional 
$5,000,000,000 over a period of 5 years to en-
hance child survival in the world’s most needy 
countries, by scaling up implementation of inte-
grated packages of high-impact and low-cost 
health and nutrition interventions at the com-
munity level; and 
(D) in addition to funds already available 
for such purposes, providing an additional 
$1,500,000,000 annually over a period of 5 
years for programs under title II of the Agricul-
tural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 
1954 (Public Law 480 (Food for Peace)) and 
the George McGovern-Robert Dole International 
Food for Education and Child Nutrition Pro-
gram, specifically for programs targeted at re-
ducing the incidence of child hunger and in-
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creasing child nutrition and educational oppor-
tunities. 
Æ 
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