Dear Colleague letter from Eleanor Holmes Norton
on the introduction of
the Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act of 2015

Dear Democratic Colleague:

Please cosponsor the Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act of 2015 (H.R.1976).

Polls indicate that over 70% of Americans want "the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons." We must begin to turn public sentiment into public policy, and make advances toward a peaceful, nuclear-weapons-free future.

The bill calls for prompt leadership by the United States in achieving an international treaty (such as the United Nations' Proposed Nuclear Weapons Convention) for the elimination of nuclear weapons worldwide, under strict international control. Under the bill, the U.S. resources that would have otherwise been spent on nuclear weapons would be used for the development and deployment of sustainable, carbon- and nuclear-free energy sources and investments in healthcare, housing, education, agriculture and environmental restoration. This conversion would ensure that any peace dividend would go toward helping to create a peace economy when the President certifies to Congress that all countries possessing nuclear weapons have begun elimination under international treaty or other legal agreement.

The bill would move the United States toward greater compliance with Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and President Barack Obama's objective to take concrete steps for a world free of nuclear weapons. The 2011 ratification of the bilateral New START treaty by the United States and Russia was an important step. The next step is a multilateral treaty among all nuclear powers to move toward global nuclear disarmament. The bill will take us in that direction.

Please contact my staffer Christy Gamble (Christy.Gamble@mail.house.gov or 202-225-8050) if you would like to cosponsor or if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Eleanor Holmes Norton

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