This Act shall take effect when the President certifies to the Congress that all foreign countries possessing nuclear weapons have established legal requirements comparable to those set forth in section 2 and those requirements have taken effect.

Long after the end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union, the threat of nuclear weapons remains. Today, the United States continues to possess around 7,300 operational nuclear warheads, and the other declared nuclear powers--Russia, Great Britain, France, and China--are estimated to possess over 10,000 operational warheads. Furthermore, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, especially in countries in unstable regions, is now one of the leading military threats to the national security of the United States and its allies.

The United States, as the sole remaining superpower and the leading nuclear power in the world, has an obligation to take bold steps toward encouraging other nuclear powers to eliminate their arsenals and to prevent the proliferation of these weapons. That is why I have chosen today, on the 54th anniversary of the first test of a nuclear explosive in Alamogordo, New Mexico, to introduce the Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act of 1999. The bill would require the United States to disable and dismantle its nuclear weapons and to refrain from replacing them with weapons of mass destruction once foreign countries possessing nuclear weapons enact and execute similar requirements.

My bill also provides that the resources used to sustain our nuclear weapons program be used to address human and infrastructure needs such as housing, health care education, agriculture, and the environment. By eliminating our nuclear weapons arsenal, the United States can realize an additional "peace dividend" from which to fund critical domestic initiatives, including new programs proposed in the Administration's FY 2000 budget.

Many courageous leaders from the United States and from around the world have spoken out on the obsolescence of nuclear weapons and the need for their elimination. Those leaders include retired Air Force General Lee Butler and more than 60 other retired generals and admirals from 17 nations, who, on December 5, 1996, issued a statement that "the continuing existence of nuclear weapons in the armories of nuclear powers, and the ever-present threat of acquisition of these weapons by others, constitute a peril to global peace and security and to the safety and survival of the people we are dedicated to protect" and that the "creation of a nuclear weapons-free world [is] necessary [and] possible."

Recent events on the Indian subcontinent demonstrate the urgent need for passage of my bill. Last year, in defiance of the nonproliferation efforts of the United States and the world community, India detonated several underground nuclear test devices, after it had refrained from doing so since its first nuclear test in 1973. Pakistan, a neighboring country with which India has fought three wars since the British colonial period ended in 1947, soon followed suit with its own nuclear tests. The trading of nuclear tests last year between India and Pakistan were a source of heightened concern as armed skirmishes persisted last month in the disputed Kashmir region adjoining those two nations.

The United States and the world community clearly must redouble their efforts to obtain commitments from India and Pakistan to refrain from actual deployment of nuclear weapons, as well as to contain other countries that aspire to become nuclear powers, such as Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, from moving forward with their programs. However, the United States will be far more credible and persuasive in these efforts if we are willing to take the initiative in dismantling our own nuclear weapons program and helping arms industries to convert plants arid employees to providing products and services that enhance the wealth and quality of life of ordinary citizens. I ask my colleagues to cosponsor the Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act of l 999 and for the committees with jurisdiction over the bill to mark it up quickly so that it can be considered and passed by the full House.

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