[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 59 (Wednesday, April 22, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E559-E560]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE INTRODUCTION OF THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS ABOLITION AND ECONOMIC AND 
                     ENERGY CONVERSION ACT OF 2015

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 22, 2015

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, on Earth Day, I am introducing the 
Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act of 
2015, 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 
D.C. voters in 1993. This version of the bill now requires the United 
States to immediately begin negotiating an international agreement to 
disable and dismantle its nuclear weapons, to provide for strict 
control of fissile material and radioactive waste, and to use 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, restoring the environment, and 
creating carbon-free, nuclear-free energy. This conversion to a peace 
economy would occur when the President certifies to Congress that all 
countries possessing nuclear weapons have begun elimination under 
international treaty or other legal agreement.
  The bill is particularly timely as countries of the world meet at the 
United Nations to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the 
possibility of a Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty.
  Our country still has a long list of urgent domestic needs that have 
been put on the back burner. 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 
reestablish our moral leadership in the world by redirecting funds that 
would otherwise go to nuclear weapons for urgent domestic needs.

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