par-newhaven.org

by Ann Froines, Back from the Brink-CT

To all friends in the peace and nuclear disarmament community:

A new House Resolution 317 for this Congressional session (2025-27), the McGovern-Tokuda Resolution, has added further language on goals for U.S. policy regarding the nuclear weapons arms race and fears of nuclear war.

It makes the same basic arguments that were included in House Resolution 77 on the need for action by our government (Congress and the President) to take a leadership role in restoring diplomatic talks with other nations on arms control treaties, “no first use” of nuclear weapons, and other urgent actions to de-escalate this frightening nuclear arms race.

It also includes three additional clauses highlighting the current environmental and human costs of nuclear weapons production, and the need for a just economic transition to ease the economic costs to communities of converting weapons factories to peaceable productive manufacturing.

Here is the language you need to know to call or write to your Congressional representative urging support for House Resolution 317. We need to flood their offices with our message.

For more information see preventnuclearwar.org.

Thank you. Ann Froines for BftB-CT, ann.froines@gmail.com.

Resolved, That the House of Representatives calls on the President to—

1. Actively pursue a world free of nuclear weapons as a national security imperative; and
2. Lead a global effort to move the world back from the nuclear brink, halt and reverse a global nuclear arms race, and prevent nuclear war by—
   1. engaging in good faith negotiations with the other eight nuclear-armed states to halt any further buildup of nuclear arsenals and to aggressively pursue a verifiable and irreversible agreement or agreements to verifiably reduce and eliminate their nuclear arsenals according to negotiated timetables, and, in particular, pursuing and concluding new nuclear arms control and disarmament arrangements with the Russian Federation to prevent a buildup of nuclear forces beyond current levels, and engaging with China on mutual nuclear risk reduction and arms control measures;
      B. leading the effort to have all nuclear-armed states renounce the option of using nuclear weapons first;
      C. implementing effective checks and balances on the Commander in Chief’s sole authority to order the use of United States nuclear weapons;
      D.  ending the Cold War-era “hair-trigger alert” posture, which increases the risk of catastrophic miscalculation in a crisis;
      E.  ending plans to produce and deploy new nuclear warheads and delivery systems, which would reduce the burden on United States taxpayers;
      F.  maintaining the de facto global moratorium on nuclear explosive testing;
      G. protecting communities and workers affected by nuclear weapons by fully remediating the deadly legacy of environmental contamination from past and current nuclear weapons testing, development, production, storage, and maintenance activities, and by providing health monitoring, compensation, and medical care to those who have and will be harmed by nuclear weapons research, testing, and production, including through an expanded Radiation Exposure Compensation Act program; and
      H. actively planning a just economic transition for the civilian and military workforce involved in the development, testing, production, management, and dismantlement of nuclear weapons and for the communities that are economically dependent on nuclear weapons laboratories, production facilities, and military bases.