[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 177 Introduced in House (IH)]







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 
 referred to the Committee on International Relations, 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

_______________________________________________________________________

                         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;
Whereas the failure of computers to recognize the year 2000 date change could 
        infect command, control, communications, and intelligence systems, 
        causing false signals or blank monitoring screens;
Whereas Russian monitoring and control systems are deteriorating;
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 
        preemptive strike even more difficult;
Whereas much of the nuclear force of each country, including submarines at sea 
        and mobile land-based missiles, is almost 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 
        relations 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--
            (1) the United States, Russia, and other nuclear 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 mistaken 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 encourage Russia to reciprocate;
            (3) the Department of Defense and the State Department 
        should study methods to increase further the time needed to 
        launch all nuclear missiles and study the effect these actions 
        would have on nuclear deterrence, relations with other 
        recognized nuclear powers, the international nuclear 
        nonproliferation regime, and other aspects of national 
        security; and
            (4) the President should expedite the establishment 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 Early 
        Warning'', agreed to in 1998, and should facilitate the 
        establishment of a temporary center before the end of 1999 that 
        could address any problems which might arise due to the failure 
        of computers to recognize the year 2000 date change.
                                 <all>