[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 882 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 882

 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Senate 
should initiate a bipartisan process to give its advice and consent to 
       ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 17, 2007

 Mrs. Tauscher (for herself, Mr. Skelton, Mr. Lantos, Ms. Sutton, Mr. 
Rothman, Mr. Loebsack, Mr. Farr, Mr. Shays, Mr. Delahunt, Mr. Crowley, 
    Ms. Matsui, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Lee, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. 
  Ackerman, Mr. Markey, Mr. Abercrombie, Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Allen, Mr. 
Doggett, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Faleomavaega, Mr. Serrano, Ms. Norton, Mr. 
McDermott, Mr. Fattah, Ms. Watson, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Berman, Mr. Wu, 
Ms. McCollum of Minnesota, Mr. Holt, Mr. Blumenauer, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. 
  Schiff, Mr. Brady of Pennsylvania, Mr. Filner, Mrs. Capps, Ms. Zoe 
 Lofgren of California, and Mr. Frank of Massachusetts) submitted the 
 following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Senate 
should initiate a bipartisan process to give its advice and consent to 
       ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

Whereas securing a global nuclear test ban has been a central arms control 
        objective for more than 40 years;
Whereas on September 10, 1996, the United Nations approved the Comprehensive 
        Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty;
Whereas on September 24, 1996, the United States signed the Comprehensive 
        Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations;
Whereas to date, 176 countries have signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban 
        Treaty, including Russia, the People's Republic of China, the United 
        Kingdom, France, and Israel;
Whereas 135 countries have ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, 
        including all member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization 
        other than the United States;
Whereas 10 countries, including the United States, must ratify the Comprehensive 
        Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty for it to enter into force;
Whereas the United States commitment to conclude the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-
        Ban Treaty was a pivotal factor in gaining international support for the 
        indefinite extension of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear 
        Weapons, the cornerstone of the nuclear nonproliferation regime;
Whereas the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty will strengthen the global 
        norm against nuclear testing, reinforce the nuclear nonproliferation 
        regime, and thereby help efforts by the United States to stop the spread 
        of nuclear weapons to additional countries or groups;
Whereas by verifiably prohibiting ``any nuclear weapon test explosion or any 
        other nuclear explosion'', the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty 
        would help constrain the development of new types of nuclear warheads by 
        existing nuclear-weapon states, including the People's Republic of 
        China, Russia, India, and Pakistan, and impede the development of 
        smaller, more easily deliverable warheads by would-be nuclear weapon 
        states;
Whereas independent nuclear weapons experts, including a National Academy of 
        Sciences panel in 2002, believe that the United States has the technical 
        capabilities to maintain confidence in the safety and reliability of its 
        existing nuclear-weapon stockpile under a test ban, if adequate 
        resources are made available to the Department of Energy's nuclear 
        weapon complex and are properly focused on this task;
Whereas the National Academy of Sciences panel, which included three former lab 
        directors, found that age-related defects mainly related to non-nuclear 
        components can be expected, but that ``nuclear testing is not needed to 
        discover these problems and is not likely to be needed to address 
        them'';
Whereas since 1992, the United States has observed a moratorium on nuclear 
        testing;
Whereas for each of the last 10 years, the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of 
        Energy have formally certified to the President that the United States 
        nuclear stockpile continues to be safe and reliable without nuclear 
        testing;
Whereas the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty is 
        essential to realizing the full benefits of the Treaty's extensive 
        international monitoring system and on-site inspection capabilities, 
        which enhance the national security of the United States; and
Whereas the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty remains on the executive 
        calendar of the United States Senate: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the Senate should initiate a bipartisan process to give its advice and 
consent to ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
                                 <all>