WANW Policy Priorities

Concerned about the current US nuclear policies?

 

Support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the nuclear ban treaty, would prohibit possession or use of nuclear weapons in order to achieve a healthier, safer, and more peaceful future. Cosponsor H.R. 302: Embracing the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is a Back from the Brink resolution which calls on the President to embrace the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and makes nuclear disarmament the centerpiece of the national security policy of the United States. It also establishes the sense of Congress to endorse the following common sense nuclear policy reforms:

  • renouncing the option of using nuclear weapons first;

  • ending the President’s sole authority to launch a nuclear attack;

  • taking the nuclear weapons of the United States off hair-trigger alert;

  • canceling the plan to replace the nuclear arsenal of the United States with modernized, enhanced weapons; and

  • actively pursuing a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to mutually eliminate their nuclear arsenals.

Continue the U.S. moratorium on nuclear testing

There is no benefit to nuclear weapons tests and decades of evidence of the harm. The United States has not conducted an explosive test since 1992, checking the efficacy and reliability of its weapons with alternative tests that produce no nuclear yield, like computer simulations. With communities around the world still recovering from the nuclear tests of the past 75 years, we must continue the U.S. commitment to the global testing moratorium. The Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021 includes $10 million to prepare the Nevada test site to resume nuclear testing. The House version contains a prohibition on such funding.

Cosponsor H.R.7140 / S.3886 - PLANET Act, to prohibit the use of funds for an explosive nuclear weapons test.

Renew the New START Treaty

We are six months away from losing the last constraints between Russia and the United States, who control the world’s two biggest nuclear arsenals. We dishonor nuclear victims when we willfully walk away from treaties designed to limit the weapons used to harm them.

Cosponsor ​H.R. 2529​ / ​S. 2394​ - the Richard G. Lugar and Ellen O. Tauscher Act to Maintain Limits on Russian Nuclear Forces, to extend the New START Treaty.

Put America on the path towards nuclear disarmament

  • Renounce the option of using nuclear weapons first -​ ​H.R. 921​/ ​S. 272

  • End the sole authority of any US president to launch a nuclear attack - ​H.R. 669​ / ​S. 200

  • Take U.S nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert

  • Cancel the plan to replace the entire US nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons

Compensate civilians exposed to ionizing radiation by nuclear weapons production and testing

Before the United States military used nuclear weapons against civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they built and tested them on American soil. The Manhattan Project was spread across the country with facilities at Hanford, Washington; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; Livermore, California and eventually the Trinity test site in south central New Mexico. Downwind communities were neither protected nor informed of airborne radiation releases from these facilities.

This failure to inform and protect continued throughout the ensuing decades of the Cold War as uranium mining, production, and testing contaminated soil, air, and groundwater. Testing at the Nevada Test site lasted from 1951-1992. The United States conducted testing in the Marshall Islands from 1946-1958. Many mining and production facilities continue to be active and cleanup at closed facilities is incomplete. Even today, generations later, we see the devastating health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation released from these facilities.

In 1990, The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) began compensating and offering health care to exposed people within a few of these communities. Without Congressional action, RECA will sunset in 2022. Congress should renew RECA to continue protecting these very vulnerable groups; strengthen RECA to offer more comprehensive and accessible compensation; and expand RECA to include the communities currently left out.

Cosponsor ​H.R. 3783​ / ​S. 947​ - the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2019, to extend and expand RECA.

Restore Medicaid to Citizens from the Marshall Islands and other COFA States

The United States conducted nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands from 1946-1958. Many Marshallese, including those who have moved to the United States, suffer from long-term negative health effects associated with this testing. People from the Marshall Islands and other Compact of Free Association COFA states were covered under Medicaid until 1996, when their access was stripped under a major welfare reform act. Congress must restore access to Medicaid now so the victims of U.S. nuclear testing can be treated for those negative health effects.

Cosponsor ​H.R.4821​ / ​S.2218​ the Covering our FAS Allies Act.