[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3653 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3653
To reduce spending on nuclear weapons and related defense spending and
to prohibit the procurement and deployment of low-yield nuclear
warheads, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 1, 2021
Mr. Blumenauer (for himself, Mr. Huffman, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Norton, Mr.
DeFazio, Ms. Bonamici, Ms. Schakowsky, and Ms. Lee of California)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Armed Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To reduce spending on nuclear weapons and related defense spending and
to prohibit the procurement and deployment of low-yield nuclear
warheads, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Smarter Approaches to Nuclear
Expenditures Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The United States continues to maintain an excessively
large and costly arsenal of nuclear delivery systems and
warheads that are a holdover from the Cold War.
(2) The current nuclear arsenal of the United States
includes approximately 3,800 total nuclear warheads in its
military stockpile, of which approximately 1,800 are deployed
with five delivery components: land-based intercontinental
ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles,
long-range strategic bomber aircraft armed with nuclear gravity
bombs, long-range strategic bomber aircraft armed with nuclear-
armed air-launched cruise missiles, and short-range fighter
aircraft that can deliver nuclear gravity bombs. The strategic
bomber fleet of the United States comprises 87 B-52 and 20 B-2
aircraft, over 60 of which contribute to the nuclear mission.
The United States also maintains 400 intercontinental ballistic
missiles and 14 Ohio-class submarines, up to 12 of which are
deployed. Each of those submarines is armed with approximately
90 nuclear warheads.
(3) Between fiscal years 2019 and 2028, the United States
will spend $494,000,000,000 to maintain and recapitalize its
nuclear force, according to a January 2019 estimate from the
Congressional Budget Office, an increase of $94,000,000,000
from the Congressional Budget Office's 2017 estimate, with
additional cost driven in part by the new nuclear weapons
called for in former President Donald Trump's 2018 Nuclear
Posture Review.
(4) Adjusted for inflation, the Congressional Budget Office
estimates that the United States will spend $1,700,000,000,000
through fiscal year 2046 on new nuclear weapons and
modernization and infrastructure programs.
(5) Inaccurate budget forecasting is likely to continue to
plague the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy,
as evidenced by the fiscal year 2021 budget request of the
President for the National Nuclear Security Administration
``Weapon Activities'' account, which far exceeded what the
National Nuclear Security Administration had projected in its
fiscal year 2020 request and what it had projected in previous
years.
(6) The projected growth in nuclear weapons spending is
coming due as the Department of Defense is seeking to replace
large portions of its conventional forces to better compete
with the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China
and as internal and external fiscal pressures are likely to
limit the growth of, and perhaps reduce, military spending. As
then-Air Force Chief of Staff General Dave Goldfein said in
2020, ``I think a debate is that this will be the first time
that the nation has tried to simultaneously modernize the
nuclear enterprise while it's trying to modernize an aging
conventional enterprise. The current budget does not allow you
to do both.''.
(7) In 2017, the Government Accountability Office concluded
that National Nuclear Security Administration's budget
forecasts for out-year spending downplayed the fact that the
agency lacked the resources to complete multiple, simultaneous
billion dollar modernization projects and recommended that the
National Nuclear Security Administration consider ``deferring
the start of or cancelling specific modernization programs''.
(8) According to the Government Accountability Office, the
National Nuclear Security Administration has still not factored
affordability concerns into its planning as was recommended by
the Government Accountability Office in 2017, with the warning
that ``it is essential for NNSA to present information to
Congress and other key decision maker indicating whether the
agency has prioritized certain modernization programs or
considered trade-offs (such as deferring or cancelling specific
modernization programs)''.
(9) A December 2020 Congressional Budget Office analysis
showed that the projected costs of nuclear forces over the next
decade can be reduced by $12,400,000,000 to $13,600,000,000 by
trimming back current plans, while still maintaining a triad of
delivery systems. Even larger savings would accrue over the
subsequent decade.
(10) The Department of Defense's June 2013 nuclear policy
guidance entitled ``Report on Nuclear Employment Strategy of
the United States'' found that force levels under the April
2010 Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and
Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms between the United
States and the Russian Federation (commonly known as the ``New
START Treaty'') ``are more than adequate for what the United
States needs to fulfill its national security objectives'' and
can be reduced by up to \1/3\ below levels under the New START
Treaty to 1,000 to 1,100 warheads.
(11) Former President Trump expanded the role of, and
spending on, nuclear weapons in United States policy at the
same time that he withdrew from, unsigned, or otherwise
terminated a series of important arms control and
nonproliferation agreements.
SEC. 3. REDUCTIONS IN NUCLEAR FORCES.
(a) Reduction of Nuclear-Armed Submarines.--Notwithstanding any
other provision of law, none of the funds authorized to be appropriated
or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2022 or any fiscal year
thereafter for the Department of Defense may be obligated or expended
for purchasing more than eight Columbia-class submarines.
(b) Reduction of Ground-Based Missiles.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, beginning in fiscal year 2022, the forces of the Air
Force shall include not more than 150 intercontinental ballistic
missiles.
(c) Reduction of Deployed Strategic Warheads.--Notwithstanding any
other provision of law, beginning in fiscal year 2022, the forces of
the United States Military shall include not more than 1,000 deployed
strategic warheads, as that term is defined in the New START Treaty.
(d) Limitation on New Long-Range Penetrating Bomber Aircraft.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds
authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available for any of
fiscal years 2022 through 2028 for the Department of Defense may be
obligated or expended for purchasing more than 80 B-21 long-range
penetrating bomber aircraft.
(e) Prohibition on F-35 Nuclear Mission.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, none of the funds authorized to be appropriated or
otherwise made available for fiscal year 2022 or any fiscal year
thereafter for the Department of Defense or the Department of Energy
may be used to make the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft capable of
carrying nuclear weapons.
(f) Prohibition on New Air-Launched Cruise Missile.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds
authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available for fiscal
year 2022 or any fiscal year thereafter for the Department of Defense
or the Department of Energy may be obligated or expended for the
research, development, test, and evaluation or procurement of the long-
range stand-off weapon or any other new air-launched cruise missile or
for the W80 warhead life extension program.
(g) Prohibition on New Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds
authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available for fiscal
year 2022 or any fiscal year thereafter for the Department of Defense
may be obligated or expended for the research, development, test, and
evaluation or procurement of the ground-based strategic deterrent or
any new intercontinental ballistic missile.
(h) Termination of Uranium Processing Facility.--Notwithstanding
any other provision of law, none of the funds authorized to be
appropriated or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2022 or any
fiscal year thereafter for the Department of Defense or the Department
of Energy may be obligated or expended for the Uranium Processing
Facility located at the Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge,
Tennessee.
(i) Prohibition on Procurement and Deployment of New Low-Yield
Warhead.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds
authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available for fiscal
year 2022 or any fiscal year thereafter for the Department of Defense
or the Department of Energy may be obligated or expended to deploy the
W76-2 low-yield nuclear warhead or any other low-yield or nonstrategic
nuclear warhead.
(j) Prohibition on New Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds
authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available for fiscal
year 2022 or any fiscal year thereafter for the Department of Defense
or the Department of Energy may be obligated or expended for the
research, development, test, and evaluation or procurement of a new
submarine-launched cruise missile capable of carrying a low-yield or
nonstrategic nuclear warhead.
(k) Limitation on Plutonium Pit Production.--Notwithstanding any
other provision of law, none of the funds authorized to be appropriated
or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2022 or any fiscal year
thereafter for the Department of Defense or the Department of Energy
may be obligated or expended for achieving production of more than 30
plutonium pits per year at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos,
New Mexico.
(l) Limitation on W87-1 Warhead Procurement and Deployment.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds
authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available for fiscal
year 2022 or any fiscal year thereafter for the Department of Defense
or the Department of Energy may be obligated or expended for the
procurement or deployment of the W87-1 warhead for use on any missile
that can feasibly employ a W87 warhead.
(m) Limitation on Sustainment of B83-1 Bomb.--Notwithstanding other
provision of law, none of the funds authorized to be appropriated or
otherwise made available for fiscal year 2022 or any fiscal year
thereafter for the Department of Defense or the Department of Energy
may be obligated or expended for the sustainment of the B83-1 bomb
beyond the time at which confidence in the B61-12 stockpile is gained.
(n) Prohibition on Space-Based Missile Defense.--Notwithstanding
other provision of law, none of the funds authorized to be appropriated
or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2022 or any fiscal year
thereafter for the Department of Defense or the Department of Energy
may be obligated or expended for the research, development, test, and
evaluation or procurement of a space-based missile defense system.
(o) Prohibition on the W-93 Warhead.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, none of the funds authorized to be appropriated or
otherwise made available for fiscal year 2022 or any fiscal year
thereafter for the Department of Defense or the Department of Energy
may be obligated or expended for the procurement and deployment of a W-
93 warhead on a submarine launched ballistic missile.
SEC. 4. REPORTS REQUIRED.
(a) Initial Report.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of
Energy shall jointly submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a
report outlining the plan of each Secretary to carry out section 3.
(b) Annual Report.--Not later than March 1, 2022, and annually
thereafter, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy shall
jointly submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report
outlining the plan of each Secretary to carry out section 3, including
any updates to previously submitted reports.
(c) Annual Nuclear Weapons Accounting.--Not later than September
30, 2022, and annually thereafter, the President shall transmit to the
appropriate committees of Congress a report containing a comprehensive
accounting by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget of
the amounts obligated and expended by the Federal Government for each
nuclear weapon and related nuclear program during--
(1) the fiscal year covered by the report; and
(2) the life cycle of such weapon or program.
(d) Cost Estimate Report.--Not later than 180 days after the date
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense and the
Secretary of Energy shall jointly submit to the appropriate committees
of Congress a report outlining the life cycle estimated cost savings
that result from carrying out section 3.
(e) Report on Funding National Defense Strategy.--Not later than
180 days after the publication of a National Defense Strategy under
section 113(g) of title 10, United States Code, the Secretary of
Defense shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report
explaining how the Secretary proposes to fund the National Defense
Strategy under different levels of projected defense spending,
including scenarios in which--
(1) anticipated cost savings from reform do not
materialize; or
(2) defense spending decreases to the levels specified by
the Budget Control Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-25; 125 Stat.
240).
(f) Modification of Period To Be Covered by Estimates of Costs
Relating to Nuclear Weapons.--Section 1043 of the National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112-81; 125 Stat.
1576), as most recently amended by section 1670 of the John S. McCain
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (Public Law
115-232; 132 Stat. 2157), is further amended in subsections (a)(2)(F)
and (b)(1)(A) by striking ``10-year period'' each place it appears and
inserting ``25-year period''.
(g) Appropriate Committees of Congress Defined.--In this section,
the term ``appropriate committees of Congress'' means--
(1) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on
Foreign Relations, the Committee on Appropriations, and the
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate; and
(2) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on
Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Appropriations, the Committee
on Energy and Commerce, and the Committee on Natural Resources
of the House of Representatives.
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