[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 11957-11958]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 SMART SECURITY AND THE NPT CONFERENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I am more than disappointed by reports that 
last month's conference to review the nuclear nonproliferation treaty 
was not a success. At the treaty review conference, representatives 
from more than 150 nations met at the United Nations headquarters in 
New York for a month of meetings to address the most urgent global 
threat we face, the proliferation of nuclear weapons. This conference 
provided a great opportunity for the global community to improve its 
collective efforts to prevent other nations from developing nuclear 
weapons capabilities, deter terrorists from obtaining nuclear weapons, 
and ensure that the current nuclear states work to reduce their nuclear 
stockpiles.
  Let us not forget that the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which the 
United States ratified in 1972, does not just declare that non-nuclear 
states cannot develop nuclear weapons. It also states that the 
countries currently in possession of nuclear weapons must work to 
reduce their stockpiles, with the ultimate goal of getting rid of 
nuclear weapons altogether. Clearly, the goals for the treaty review 
conference were challenging; but the United States could have, and 
should have, made headway by living up to our international 
commitments.
  Unfortunately, a major reason that the NPT conference was considered 
a failure was America's focus on the threats posed by Iran and North 
Korea, while at the same time failing to agree to reduce our own 
nuclear arsenal. The United States currently possesses more than 10,000 
nuclear weapons. In fact, at

[[Page 11958]]

the same time the NPT conference was taking place, the Bush 
administration and many Republicans in Congress were actually pushing 
ahead with plans to fund a new nuclear weapon, the so-called bunker 
buster bomb. The Bush administration's continued pursuit of nuclear 
weapons, while demanding that Iran and North Korea disarm, demonstrates 
a rare level of supreme arrogance and hypocrisy, even for this most 
arrogant of Presidential administrations.
  Mr. Speaker, I wholeheartedly agree that the threats posed by Iran 
and North Korea must be taken seriously. If we fail to take the proper 
diplomatic actions, both nations could soon possess a sizable and 
dangerous nuclear arsenal. But why would we expect other countries to 
dismantle their nuclear infrastructures unless we maintain our 
nonproliferation commitments?
  SMART security, H. Con. Res. 158, which is a Sensible, Multilateral, 
American Response to Terrorism, is a positive approach to this very 
challenge. SMART security promotes efforts to reduce the buildup of 
nuclear weapons and materials, using the cooperative threat reduction 
program as an example of how to accomplish this important goal. Through 
CTR, the United States and Russia are working together to dismantle 
excess nuclear weapons and materials in the states of the former Soviet 
Union. And because of CTR, 20,000 Russian scientists who formerly 
worked to create nuclear weapons are now working to destroy them.
  SMART security also urges an expansion of the successful CTR program 
to countries like Libya and Pakistan. Using our diplomatic 
relationships with these countries to encourage them to give up their 
dangerous nuclear materials is part of SMART security. But CTR is 
merely one of the broad array of national security initiatives in the 
SMART security platform. Any attempt to rid the world of nuclear 
weapons must begin with nonproliferation efforts here at home, in the 
United States of America. We must fulfill our international pledge to 
reduce our own nuclear stockpiles and resist building new nuclear 
weapons. President Bush's continued efforts to study and fund the 
bunker buster bomb is the exact opposite of these efforts.
  The United States must set an example for the rest of the world by 
pursuing smart policies, policies that promote nuclear reduction, not 
nuclear proliferation; policies that support global initiatives to 
secure nuclear materials, not global nuclear buildup. It is time to end 
the era of nuclear weapons. This effort begins here in the United 
States Congress with SMART security.

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