00:00Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address one of the most serious issues of our time, the risk of conflict with nuclear weapons. It is a threat that challenges our conscience. It is a threat not just for Americans, but for all humanity. And it is a threat not just to humans, but to all species of life on our planet.
00:22We raise this issue in the context of a series of important anniversaries. One week ago, July 16th, marked the 80th anniversary of the Trinity Test, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon in New Mexico.
00:38We still live with the legacy of above-ground nuclear tests. Two years ago, the Defense Department awarded the Atomic Veterans Commemorative Service Medal to the still-surviving veterans of that era and their family members.
00:52We must also honor the downwinders, civilians whose health and land suffered from the effects from radiation from these tests. Many were in the state of Nevada.
01:03In addition, we cannot forget the Pacific Islanders who have not been able to return to their home islands.
01:10Or the Uyghurs and others whose homeland in Xinjiang was the location of China's nuclear tests. They, too, have suffered a long-term health consequence.
01:22In two weeks, we will commemorate the first use of a nuclear weapon in a conflict, and that was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945.
01:33And the second, the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9th. Let us pray that Nagasaki will be the last. Let us work to make sure that it is.
01:43Sadly, the threat from nuclear weapons is only increasing. There are estimated to be 13,400 nuclear weapons in the world today.
01:53Some 90% of these are in the arsenals of the United States and Russia. The rest belong to the UK, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea.
02:05Russia has threatened to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine and even against NATO nations.
02:11North Korea uses its nuclear weapons program to intimidate the United States, Japan, and Korea.
02:18China continues to build up its nuclear arsenal. It has some 600 warheads today and is expected to pass 1,000 by 2030, according to the Pentagon.
02:30The question of Iran's nuclear program has been at the top of our concerns.
02:35The military strikes by Israel and the United States were, as stated, designed to degrade or eliminate Iran's nuclear development capabilities.
02:45However, as the Washington Post reported last week, U.S. intelligence agencies assessed that only one of Iran's three principal nuclear facilities was destroyed by the U.S. attacks.
02:57This tells us that military action is not a reliable way to counter nuclear threats.
03:04In 80 years of the nuclear era, the only proven, demonstrated way to reduce the risk of nuclear conflict and to lessen the scale of its destruction is through diplomacy and negotiations.
03:18If not for past arms control agreements, Mr. Speaker, today's arsenals would be larger and more dangerous.
03:27If not for limitation on above ground and atmospheric testing, many more people would suffer from radiation and contamination.
03:36But our challenge is made harder by the fact that there is only one arms control agreement remaining in force between the United States and Russia.
03:46The new START treaty limits the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads for each party to one thousand five hundred and fifty.
03:54The treaty expires in February twenty twenty six.
03:58There are there are scant signs that either government is interested in extending it.
04:05President Donald Trump can and should take forward steps on nuclear arms control.
04:10He can follow in the footsteps of other Republican presidents.
04:13President Eisenhower and in his atoms for peace speech expressed the moral imperative to warn Americans in the world of the destructiveness of atomic weapons.
04:25President Reagan in his second term negotiated the INF treaty with the Soviets.
04:31He spoke privately with Gorbachev about the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
04:37Earlier this year, President Trump said from the Oval Office, and I quote,
04:41There's no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons.
04:44We already have so many.
04:46You could destroy the world fifty times over, a hundred times over,
04:50and here we are building new nuclear weapons and they're building nuclear weapons, end quote.
04:56He added, let me quote again,
04:59We're all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually hopefully more productive, end quote.
05:05On this point, Mr. Speaker, President Trump is right.
05:09President Trump has the opportunity to make nuclear threat reduction a part of his legacy.
05:16As a smart first step, he and Putin can strike a deal to respect New START's central limits and set the stage for a more comprehensive nuclear arms control framework agreement.
05:29Next, President Trump can put nuclear weapons on the agenda when he meets with Xi Jinping.
05:35He expressed a willingness to do this in his Oval Office comments.
05:42Even talking about negotiations in itself can help reduce tensions.
05:47A deal requires a first step, and I encourage the President to take it, and to take it soon.
05:54And we in Congress can use our voice.
05:57Along with our colleague, Representative Jill Takuda of Hawaii, I am the proud sponsor of H-Res 317,
06:05a resolution that calls on the U.S. government to return to the negotiating table on nuclear disarmament
06:12and to lead a global effort to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons.
06:18It reaffirms our country's moral and strategic obligation to prevent nuclear war
06:23and pursue a world free of nuclear weapons as a national security imperative.
06:30This call is in the spirit of President Eisenhower and Reagan,
06:34and Presidents Carter and Obama, and we hope President Trump.
06:38I am pleased to report that Senators Markey, Merkley, Sanders, Welsh, and Van Hollen
06:43have all introduced a version of our resolution.
06:46And I urge the foreign policy committees of both bodies to consider these resolutions promptly.
06:52Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, activity in House committees is taking us in the wrong direction.
06:59Last week, the Appropriations Committee approved an energy and water bill
07:03that cuts the National Nuclear Security Administration's defense nuclear nonproliferation account by $412 million.
07:13That's 17 percent.
07:15These activities help the U.S. stop the spread of nuclear weapons, detect hidden nuclear activities, and support arms control efforts.
07:24Why would anybody think it is a good idea to cut that account?
07:29Also last week, the Armed Services Committee approved the National Defense Authorization Act.
07:34It authorizes $62 billion for the nuclear enterprise, which represents a 26 percent increase over President Biden's request last year.
07:46Unfortunately, the committee rejected an amendment by our colleague from California, John Garamendi,
07:51to restrict funding to create a new land-based nuclear delivery system, the Sentinel Missile,
07:58a $180 billion boondoggle he has called an endless money pit.
08:04The threat of nuclear war is an existential one.
08:09We have a moral imperative, a moral imperative to address it and address it urgently.
08:16Debates over the utility and morality of nuclear weapons are as old as the nuclear age.
08:22Notably, many of the people who helped make atomic weapons turned out to be some of the most powerful voices against their use
08:31and for the reduction in their arsenals.
08:35Two years ago this week, Mr. Speaker, the film Oppenheimer premiered.
08:41It told the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who helped create the atomic bomb,
08:47but then pushed against development of more powerful weapons.
08:51And for that position of moral courage, he paid a political price.
08:56Two months ago, Dr. Richard Garwin passed away at the age of 97.
09:01He's best known as the author of the first hydrogen bomb.
09:05Less widely known is that he spent decades working tirelessly in arms control and disarmament
09:11on scientific panels, conferences, and government boards.
09:15In a 2018 interview, Dr. Garwin said, and let me quote,
09:19There is the myth, and you saw it operate many times in the past, that if there is a perceived security problem,
09:27well, no difficulty, we'll just buy more nuclear weapons.
09:31But that doesn't improve our security.
09:33What we want is less nuclear weapons and less cause for using them on the other side, end quote.
09:40You know, when I was a staffer for the late Congressman Joe Moakley in the 1980s,
09:44I recall going to hear Dr. Garwin and Dr. Carl Sagan give a talk on nuclear weapons and the Strategic Defense Initiative.
09:52Dr. Sagan, of course, is the physicist who helped us understand the idea of a nuclear winter,
09:58the hemisphere-wide dark age caused by the radioactive ash sent into the atmosphere following multiple nuclear detonations,
10:07wiping out food supplies, causing untold deaths from starvation even beyond the millions killed by the blasts.
10:15For us today, the dynamic Dr. Garwin identifies isn't in the past, it's in the present.
10:22Our inboxes are full of policy papers expressing fears about the growth of China's nuclear arsenal,
10:29or Vladimir Putin's intentions, or Iran's plans.
10:34Too often policymakers have a reflexive response.
10:38They are building more, so we should build more.
10:41Mr. Speaker, this is so short-sighted.
10:44It is a dangerous reaction, very, very dangerous.
10:48We know firsthand the harm that such devastating weapons can have.
10:53On the 80th anniversary, people of many generations will gather in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
11:00and very few survivors of those atomic bombings remain with us.
11:05But their stories endure.
11:08The disturbing photos of the burns and the radiation sickness, they endure.
11:15And those cities, those gathered, will recommit to preserving the memory of the destruction,
11:21and to plead with current and future generations to work to ensure that such horrors never, ever, ever happen again.
11:29I regret I cannot be with them in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
11:32but that is why I have organized this special order on the House floor today,
11:36so that members can share their message from the floor of the House.
11:40And to our colleagues, and to the President, and to the American people,
11:46this is a crucial moment in world history.
11:49We have a moral responsibility to speak out and to do more.
11:54After the anniversaries, after the August break, when we return to Washington,
11:59let us commit to raise more awareness, more congressional hearings, more debate on the floor,
12:06more encouragement for scientists, civil society, and regular citizens to raise their voices.
12:13Let us commit to legislation to contain the growth of nuclear weapons.
12:19Let us commit ourselves to the elimination of nuclear weapons.
12:23And with that, Mr. Speaker, I am glad to yield to the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Foster.
