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 systems, including the Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty of 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
nuclear weapons, their delivery systems, and supporting infrastructure 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 prevent 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, initiated 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 destruction 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 vision of a
nuclear-weapon-free world of Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev at the Reykjavik
Summit of 1986;
(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 international terrorism;
Whereas the United States and the Russian Federation,
committed by international agreement as well as joint commitments by their
respective Presidents, will reduce nuclear armaments in coming years and will
encourage other countries to do likewise;
Whereas the Task Force on Department of Energy
Nonproliferation 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 stated
that We fight against poverty because hope is an answer to terror. We
fight against poverty because opportunity 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 conviction that major
progress is within our reach.
;
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. Including 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
Terrorist 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. strategy to counter terrorism should include policies that encourage
development, more open societies, and opportunities that improve the lives of
families and enhance prospects 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 initiatives;
Whereas despite significant progress worldwide in reducing
child mortality rates over time, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
estimates that 9,200,000 children under the age of 5 die every year, mostly
from preventable 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;
Whereas international health experts estimate that an
additional $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
organizations estimate that scaling up a minimum package of existing
interventions delivered through effective, community-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 support for bilateral and multilateral
programs;
Whereas according to the United Nations World Food
Programme, 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, decrease the incidence of hunger and
malnutrition in school-age children, and help create literate, self-sustaining,
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
Agricultural Organization of the United Nations estimate that an additional
$5,000,000,000 annually in global assistance 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
ending 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
1.This resolution may be cited as the
Global Security Priorities
Resolution
.
2.It is the sense of the
House of Representatives that—
(1)the President
should continue both negotiations 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;
(3)the Cooperative
Threat Reduction (Nunn-Lugar) Program should be enhanced and extended to third
countries who request it as a truly cooperative, 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
environment 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 reductions should be used for cooperative threat reduction
and to alleviate those problems in the world affecting children and families
that can contribute to the support for international terrorism,
including—
(A)as a first
priority, allocating funds annually to extend the Cooperative Threat Reduction
Program (Nunn-Lugar) at a rate of at least an additional $1,000,000,000 per
year, and increased as warranted, to dismantle remaining weapons, establish
verifiable safeguards, and improve accounting and physical security;
(B)increasing United
States contributions to such programs as the Global Partnership Against the
Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction and the Global Threat
Reduction 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 enhance child survival in the
world’s most needy countries, by scaling up implementation of integrated
packages of high-impact and low-cost health and nutrition interventions at the
community 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 Agricultural 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 Program, specifically for programs targeted at
reducing the incidence of child hunger and increasing child nutrition and
educational opportunities.