The sponsors of nuclear no-first-use legislation accepted Wednesday on Capitol Hill roughly 500,000 signatures collected by nongovernmental and anti-nuclear advocacy groups in support of the bill.
Just days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) introduced in their respective chambers of Congress the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017, which would prohibit the president from launching a nuclear first strike without congressional authorization.
Markey said at a Wednesday press conference that the power currently given to the president to initiate a nuclear war – rather than respond to a nuclear attack on the United States – is “unconstitutional, it’s undemocratic, and it is simply unbelievable that such a state of affairs can exist.”
“No president should have the power to launch a nuclear first strike without congressional approval,” Markey said. “Such a strike would be immoral, it would be disproportionate, and it would expose the United States to the threat of devastating nuclear retaliation.”
Organizations that submitted approximately half a million signatures to signal public support for the bill include the Arms Control Association, Global Zero, Ploughshares Fund, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. These organizations are encouraging the public to contact their members of Congress and call on them to cosponsor the legislation.
Lieu noted that he and Markey introduced the same bill to both chambers last year before the election, indicating the primary concern is nuclear first-strike power in any president’s hands. Even so, “President Trump highlights the urgency of this,” he said.
The lawmakers pointed to Trump’s previous comments suggesting the United States should expand its nuclear capability and enter into an arms race with Russia, as well as his campaign trail remarks in support of U.S. allies’ development of their own nuclear weapons.
“There is no scenario . . . that requires a nuclear weapon that U.S. conventional forces could not handle instead,” Lieu said.
The lawmakers’ latest legislation currently remains in each chamber’s foreign affairs committee.
