Title: Embracing the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution calls on (1) the President to embrace the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and make nuclear disarmament the centerpiece of U.S. national security policy, and (2) the United States to lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 302 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 302

Embracing the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of 
                            Nuclear Weapons.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 10, 2019

 Mr. McGovern (for himself and Mr. Blumenauer) 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 famine--for example, as few as 100 
        Hiroshima-sized bombs, small by modern standards, if used to attack 
        urban industrial targets would put at least 5,000,000 tons of soot into 
        the upper atmosphere and cause climate disruption across the planet, 
        cutting food production and putting 2,000,000,000 people at risk of 
        starvation;
Whereas according to scientific studies and models, a large-scale 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 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 the Congressional Budget Office further estimates that annual spending 
        on nuclear weapons will peak at about $50,000,000,000 during the late 
        2020s and early 2030s;
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;
Whereas, on February 2, 2019, the United States and the Russian Federation 
        withdrew from the Intermediate-Range 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; and
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: Now, therefore, 
        be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the United States--
            (1) calls on the President to embrace the goals and 
        provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons 
        and make nuclear disarmament the centerpiece of the national 
        security policy of the United States; and
            (2) calls on the Secretary of State, the Secretary of 
        Defense, all other Federal and congressional leaders of the 
        United States and the American people to lead a global effort 
        to prevent nuclear war by--
                    (A) renouncing the option of using nuclear weapons 
                first;
                    (B) ending the President's sole authority to launch 
                a nuclear attack;
                    (C) taking the nuclear weapons of the United States 
                off hair-trigger alert;
                    (D) canceling the plan to replace the nuclear 
                arsenal of the United States with modernized, enhanced 
                weapons; and
                    (E) actively pursuing a verifiable agreement among 
                nuclear-armed states to mutually eliminate their 
                nuclear arsenals.
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