[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 155 (Wednesday, September 27, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1277]
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

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 27, 2017

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I am introducing the Nuclear Weapons 
Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act, 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 an 
international treaty or other legal agreement.
  The bill is particularly timely with the ongoing nuclear threat from 
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
  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 to urgent domestic needs.

                          ____________________