[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 25, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E312]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE INTRODUCTION OF THE NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AND ECONOMIC CONVERSION ACT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 25, 1997

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, the cold war is over, but nuclear weapons 
remain. The bill I introduce today would substantially reduce the 
likelihood that nuclear weapons will become a renewed threat. The 
Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act would require the 
United States to disable and dismantle its nuclear weapons and to 
refrain from replacing them with weapons of mass destruction once 
foreign countries possessing nuclear weapons enact and execute similar 
requirements. The United States, the leading nuclear power in the 
world, has an obligation to take far bolder leadership in moving to 
help disarm these weapons.
  The act would then require that resources used to sustain nuclear 
programs be used to address human needs such as housing, health care, 
education, agriculture, and environmental restoration. Funding such 
initiatives here in the United States is necessary to bring peace 
within our own country. As deficit reduction forces cuts, reducing 
needless nuclear weaponry is the place to begin.
  This bill is especially relevant today with the Clinton 
administration's push to expand the number of countries that are 
members of NATO and would be bound by the treaty to come to each 
other's defense.
  My bill will put our money and our principles where our mouth has 
been. We must not continue to spend on nuclear weapons while we preach 
peace and the end of nuclear proliferation.

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