IV
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. RES. 317
Urging the United States to lead the world back from the brink of nuclear
war and halt and reverse the nuclear arms race.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL9, 2025
Mr. M
CGOVERN(for himself, Ms. TOKUDA, Mr. LIEU, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Ms.
V
ELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. THANEDAR, Ms. LOF-
GREN, Ms. NORTON, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. DOGGETT, Ms. BONAMICI, Ms.
O
MAR, and Mr. CASAR) submitted the following resolution; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Com-
mittee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall with-
in the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
RESOLUTION
Urging the United States to lead the world back from the
brink of nuclear war and halt and reverse the nuclear
arms race.
Whereas, since the height of the Cold War, the United States
and Russia have dismantled more than 50,000 nuclear
warheads, but some 12,000 nuclear weapons still exist
and pose an intolerable risk to human survival;
Whereas the United States and Russia, which possess an esti-
mated 95 percent of these weapons, have a special re-
sponsibility to meet their obligations under Article VI of
the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to ‘‘pursue
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•HRES 317 IH
negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating
to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date
and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general
and complete disarmament under strict and effective
international control’’;
Whereas President Ronald Reagan said in his January 1984
State of the Union Address that ‘‘A nuclear war cannot
be won and must never be fought. The only value in our
two nations possessing nuclear weapons is to make sure
they will never be used. But then would it not be better
to do away with them entirely?’’;
Whereas, according to scientific studies and models, the use
of even a tiny fraction of these weapons could cause
worldwide climate disruption and global famine by lofting
millions of tons of soot into the upper atmosphere, which
would cause climate disruption across the planet, cutting
food production and putting hundreds of millions of peo-
ple worldwide at risk of death due to famine;
Whereas, according to numerous scientific studies and mod-
els, a large-scale nuclear war would kill hundreds of mil-
lions of people directly and cause unimaginable physical
destruction and environmental damage, including even
more severe catastrophic climate disruption due to lower
temperatures across the planet not seen since the last ice
age;
Whereas, during the course of the nuclear age, there have
been technical miscalculations, misinterpretations of ad-
versary behavior, and crises that have led to numerous
nuclear near-misses that could have led to nuclear war;
Whereas the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine by the Rus-
sian Federation and the Kremlin’s repeated explicit
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•HRES 317 IH
threats to use nuclear weapons have significantly in-
creased the risk of nuclear weapons use;
Whereas tensions elsewhere in the world, including between
the United States and China over Taiwan and the South
China Sea, ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan,
and the chronic security crisis on the Korean Peninsula,
constitute other possible flashpoints for nuclear war;
Whereas, on October 6, 2022, President Biden said, ‘‘I don’t
think there’s any such thing as an ability to easily use
a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armaged-
don.’’;
Whereas the United States retains a Cold War-era nuclear
declaratory policy that allows for the first use of nuclear
weapons against nonnuclear threats under ‘‘extreme’’ cir-
cumstances and retains a launch-under-attack posture
that unnecessarily compresses Presidential decision time
to launch nuclear weapons within minutes, thereby cre-
ating conditions that increase the risk of unintentional or
accidental nuclear war;
Whereas, in 2023, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
estimated that current plans to modernize, upgrade, and
maintain United States nuclear forces, as described in
the fiscal year 2023 budget and supporting documents,
would cost $756,000,000,000 over the 2023–2032 period,
which was $122,000,000,000 more than CBO’s 2021 es-
timate for the 2021–2030 period;
Whereas, in October 2017, CBO estimated that the Nuclear
Modernization Plan to upgrade and enhance nearly every
element of the nuclear arsenal of the United States would
result in costs of more than $1,200,000,000,000 over the
following 30 years, not adjusting for inflation;
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Whereas Republican and Democratic administrations have
negotiated multiple agreements with the Russian Federa-
tion that have reduced their total nuclear stockpiles by
more than 80 percent since their Cold War peaks, but in
recent years have withdrawn from other global treaties
and agreements that have provided global stability and
helped prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, in-
cluding the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty;
Whereas the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review states that
‘‘[m]utual, verifiable nuclear arms control offers the most
effective, durable, and responsible path to reduce the role
of nuclear weapons in our strategy and prevent their
use’’;
Whereas the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty,
which is the last remaining treaty limiting the size of
United States and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals,
will expire on February 5, 2026, and in the absence of
agreed following constraints, each side could significantly
increase the number of deployed warheads, thereby accel-
erating an unconstrained, costly, and dangerous global
nuclear arms race;
Whereas, on July 7, 2017, 122 nations voted to adopt the
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which
prohibits the possession, use, testing, stationing, or trans-
fer of nuclear weapons and creates an important legal
framework for the elimination of all nuclear weapons and
entered into force on January 22, 2021; and
Whereas the United States suspended nuclear explosive test-
ing in 1992, successfully led the negotiation of the 1996
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which has been
signed by 187 countries including the United States and
the other P–5 nuclear powers, and has effectively put an
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end to nuclear test explosions, which can be used by
newer nuclear powers with the means to prove new war-
head designs: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives calls on 1
the President to— 2
(1) actively pursue a world free of nuclear 3
weapons as a national security imperative; and 4
(2) lead a global effort to move the world back 5
from the nuclear brink, halt and reverse a global nu-6
clear arms race, and prevent nuclear war by— 7
(A) engaging in good faith negotiations 8
with the other 8 nuclear armed states to halt 9
any further buildup of nuclear arsenals and to 10
aggressively pursue a verifiable and irreversible 11
agreement or agreements to verifiably reduce 12
and eliminate their nuclear arsenals according 13
to negotiated timetables, and, in particular, 14
pursuing and concluding new nuclear arms con-15
trol and disarmament arrangements with the 16
Russian Federation to prevent a buildup of nu-17
clear forces beyond current levels, and engaging 18
with China on mutual nuclear risk reduction 19
and arms control measures; 20
(B) leading the effort to have all nuclear- 21
armed states renounce the option of using nu-22
clear weapons first; 23
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•HRES 317 IH
(C) implementing effective checks and bal-1
ances on the Commander in Chief’s sole author-2
ity to order the use of United States nuclear 3
weapons; 4
(D) ending the Cold War-era ‘‘hair-trigger 5
alert’’ posture, which increases the risk of cata-6
strophic miscalculation in a crisis; 7
(E) ending plans to produce and deploy 8
new nuclear warheads and delivery systems, 9
which would reduce the burden on United 10
States taxpayers; 11
(F) maintaining the de facto global mora-12
torium on nuclear explosive testing; 13
(G) protecting communities and workers 14
affected by nuclear weapons by fully remedi-15
ating the deadly legacy of environmental con-16
tamination from past and current nuclear weap-17
ons testing, development, production, storage, 18
and maintenance activities, and by providing 19
health monitoring, compensation, and medical 20
care to those who have and will be harmed by 21
nuclear weapons research, testing, and produc-22
tion, including through an expanded Radiation 23
Exposure Compensation Act program; and 24
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(H) actively planning a just economic tran-1
sition for the civilian and military workforce in-2
volved in the development, testing, production, 3
management, and dismantlement of nuclear 4
weapons and for the communities that are eco-5
nomically dependent on nuclear weapons labora-6
tories, production facilities, and military bases. 7
Æ
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