[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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