[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 53 (Thursday, April 18, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS ABOLITION AND ECONOMIC AND ENERGY 
                         CONVERSION ACT OF 2013

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 18, 2013

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I am introducing the Nuclear Weapons 
Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act of 2013, a version of 
which I have introduced since 1994, after working with the District of 
Columbia residents who were responsible for the Nuclear Disarmament and 
Economic Conversion ballot initiative passed by DC voters in 1993. This 
version of the bill now requires the United States to negotiate an 
international agreement to disable and dismantle its nuclear weapons by 
2020 and provides for strict control of fissile material and 
radioactive waste and for use of nuclear-free energy. The bill 
continues to provide that the funds used for nuclear weapons programs 
be redirected to human and infrastructure needs, such as housing, 
health care, Social Security and the environment, and it would take 
effect when the President certifies to Congress that all countries 
possessing nuclear weapons have eliminated such weapons. The bill is 
particularly timely as Congress continues to make cuts to important 
human and infrastructure programs and as the world confronts concerns 
about nuclear proliferation to Iran and North Korea.
  Following years of dangerous increases in U.S. nuclear capacity 
during the George W. Bush administration, President Barack Obama has 
begun to rebuild U.S. credibility with his goal of taking the necessary 
steps to achieve a world without nuclear weapons. The president's 
strong push for the New START treaty in 2010, when Republicans seemed 
adamant on delaying it, resulted in ratification by the Senate. The 
treaty requires the two major nuclear powers, Russia and the United 
States, to continue to reduce nuclear weapons by mutually reducing 
their nuclear warheads by half and their number of intercontinental 
ballistic missiles and missile launchers, and, within 60 days of the 
treaty taking affect, on February 5, 2011, submit to on-site 
inspections of strategic nuclear weapons facilities by the weapons 
experts of the other country.
  Today, our country has a long list of urgent domestic needs that have 
been put on the back burner even though millions of Americans have lost 
their homes and jobs and sequestration has started. As the only nation 
that has used nuclear weapons in war, and that still possesses the 
largest nuclear weapons arsenal, I urge support for my bill to help the 
United States lead the world in redirecting funds that would otherwise 
go to nuclear weapons to be available for urgent domestic needs.

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