[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.J. Res. 97 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. J. RES. 97

        Calling for an end to the threat of nuclear destruction.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 11, 2002

 Mr. Markey (for himself, Mr. Kucinich, Ms. Lee, Mr. Filner, Mr. Holt, 
   Ms. McCollum, Ms. McKinney, Mr. Payne, Mr. Sanders, Mrs. Mink of 
 Hawaii, Mr. Hinchey, and Mrs. Jones of Ohio) introduced the following 
joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International 
                               Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                            JOINT RESOLUTION


 
        Calling for an end to the threat of nuclear destruction.

Whereas more than ten years after the end of the Cold War, the threat of nuclear 
        destruction is still mounting: the United States and Russia have refused 
        to give up nuclear arms, other countries are producing nuclear weapons, 
        and terrorists are trying to acquire those weapons;
Whereas poorly guarded nuclear warheads and nuclear material in the states of 
        the former Soviet Union could fall into the hands of terrorists;
Whereas the executive branch of the United States government is developing 
        nuclear ``bunker busters'' and threatening to use them against countries 
        that do not possess nuclear weapons;
Whereas the risk of nuclear war between India and Pakistan is rising;
Whereas the treaty between the United States and Russia that was signed in May 
        2002 reduces deployed strategic warheads to 2200 each but nonetheless 
        leaves both countries threatened with ``assured destruction'' and allows 
        them each to maintain arsenals of more than 10,000 active, inactive, 
        strategic, and tactical warheads;
Whereas the dangers posed by huge nuclear arsenals, threats of using nuclear 
        weapons, proliferation of nuclear weapons, and terrorism are linked 
        since the refusal of the countries possessing nuclear weapons to disarm 
        them fuels proliferation, and proliferation makes nuclear materials more 
        accessible to terrorists;
Whereas the events of September 11, 2001, brought home to the people of the 
        United States what it means to experience a catastrophic attack, yet the 
        horrifying losses that day were only a fraction of what any country 
        would suffer if a single nuclear weapon were used on one of its major 
        cities; and
Whereas the policy of the United States on nuclear weapons should focus on 
        safety from nuclear destruction, and this goal can be attained only by 
        reducing and ultimately eliminating nuclear arms under binding 
        agreements: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress--
            (1) calls on the President of the United States and the 
        Government of Russia to fulfill the commitments of the United 
        States and Russia under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of 
        Nuclear Weapons to work with the other nuclear powers toward 
        eliminating nuclear weapons in stages that are subjected to 
        careful inspection and verification; and
            (2) in taking steps to carry out paragraph (1), the United 
        States--
                    (A) should renounce the first use of nuclear 
                weapons and permanently end the development, testing, 
                and production of nuclear warheads;
                    (B) should seek an agreement with Russia that--
                            (i) provides for the mutual and verified 
                        destruction of nuclear weapons that are 
                        withdrawn under treaties that have been signed; 
                        and
                            (ii) increases the resources available in 
                        the United States and in the states of the 
                        former Soviet Union to secure nuclear warheads 
                        and nuclear material and to implement the 
                        destruction of those warheads and material;
                    (C) should strengthen nonproliferation efforts by--
                            (i) ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban 
                        Treaty;
                            (ii) refraining from providing to North 
                        Korea, and urging Russia to refrain from 
                        providing to Iran, nuclear reactor technologies 
                        that can be exploited for nuclear weapons 
                        purposes; and
                            (iii) supporting United Nations inspections 
                        of suspected nuclear weapons facilities and 
                        nuclear weapons materials in Iraq; and
                            (iv) participating in locating and reducing 
                        fissile material worldwide and negotiating a 
                        ban on its production;
                    (D) should enter into an agreement with the other 
                nuclear powers--the United Kingdom, France, Russia, the 
                People's Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and 
                Israel--to take nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert, 
                thereby reducing the risk of the accidental or 
                unauthorized use of the warheads and preparing for the 
                ultimate elimination of the warheads; and
                    (E) should initiate talks on further reductions of 
                nuclear weapons, beginning with reductions by the 
                United States and Russia to 1,000 warheads each and 
                proceeding to further reductions of the nuclear 
                warheads held by all of the nuclear powers.
                                 <all>