About the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW):
* STRATEGIES FOR NGOs Supporting the TPNW at the U.N. 2025 *
* ARTICLES about the TPNW *

LET'S END THE WHOLE NUCLEAR ERA

IF YOU WANT TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS - LET YOUR LEGISLATORS KNOW!

GREAT NEWS! On March 5, 2025, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced her "Warheads to Windmills" bill for the 17th time as HR-1888, with eight immediate cosponsors. Here is the text that was introduced.

In a press release, Ms. Norton wrote:

"Today, I introduce the Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Conversion Act of 2025.

"This bill would require the United States, beginning on the date that the president certifies to Congress that all countries possessing nuclear weapons have begun the verifiable and irreversible elimination of such weapons under the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (Treaty), to redirect resources that are being used for nuclear weapons programs to be used for addressing the climate crisis and human and infrastructure needs, such as housing, health care and restoring the environment.

"In 1993, District of Columbia peace activists were successful in getting a ballot initiative in D.C. passed that called for nuclear disarmament. Since then, I have introduced a bill each Congress based on that initiative, including this bill. In March 2019, the D.C. Council passed a “Sense of the Council” resolution urging the United States to approve the Treaty. These actions show that D.C. residents were early, prescient leaders on this important issue. It seems that the rest of the world is, thankfully, starting to catch up to D.C.

"As the only nation that has used nuclear weapons in war, and that still possesses one of the largest nuclear weapons arsenals, this bill would help the United States reestablish its moral leadership in the world.

"I urge my colleagues to support this bill."

***

Please take the time to contact your Representative and Senators (202-224-3121) and ask them to cosponsor the bill. There are so many bills introduced each session, they may not know about HR-1888; it's important they hear about it from their constituents!

Hopefully with President Trump now calling for elimination of nuclear weapons, Republicans might finally become interested in this bill. Here is language from a letter WILPF members in North Carolina sent to Republican Senator Tillis:

"Please introduce a companion bill to HR-1888 into the Senate! Congresswoman Norton has been introducing this legislation every session since 1994, without it ever getting out of Committees or being introduced into the Senate.

"President Trump is saying we should eliminate nuclear weapons. We wholeheartedly agree. This bill would help, because it sends a message to arms industrialists that they would be paid to transform their industries to addressing climate change rather than preparing the world for war.

"Please be the first Republican to show you agree."

The Warheads to Windmills Coalition and Women's International League for Peace & Freedom US have joined Proposition One Campaign in reaching out to past cosponsors, and seeking new ones. Please send us a copy of any letters or emails you send!

We've created these resources for those who want to help with the campaign:

For the House -
* Please circulate the paper petition to U.S. Representatives.

For the Senate -
* Please circulate the paper petition to Senators
* And sign the online Petition to the President and Senators for the U.S. to sign and ratify the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Other Resources:
* "SPREAD THE WORD ... please?
* "Warheads to Windmills: Preventing Climate Catastrophe and Nuclear War" 2023 report by NuclearBan.US
* "Let's End the Whole Nuclear Era!", a WILPF-US Disarm Committee foldover flyer
* "Don't Bank On The Bomb" - move the money from nuclear weapons industries and banks that fund them
* WILPF US Disarm Committee website and WILPF US YouTube channel
* Contact the Campaign

Please let us know if you have contacted your Representative or Senators so that we may follow up.

And if you are a constituent, please take time to thank Eleanor Holmes Norton for faithfully introducing her nuclear weapons abolition bill each session since 1994. If you are not a constituent, please call (202-225-8050) or fax (202-225-3002) her office to advise that you've contacted your Representative to ask for cosponsorship.

Proposition One Campaign has been working for an end to the whole nuclear era since it was founded in 1990, created by members of the then-9-year-old antinuclear vigil in Lafayette Park, north of the White House, to bring a voter initiative to the people of Washington DC. As a result of the victory of DC Initiative 37 in 1993, the Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Energy Conversion Act has been introduced each session between 1994 and 2025 into the U.S. House of Representatives by DC's Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Until 2019, this was the ONLY legislation calling for nuclear abolition and conversion, and we focused our energies on seeking cosponsors in the House of Representatives. In 2017, when the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was approved by 122 nations, we also launched a campaign for sponsors in the Senate.

On January 22, 2021, the TPNW became international law! Now we need to convince our own country, and all nine nuclear weapons countries, to sign and ratify the treaty. There are a number of groups now dedicated to making this happen, foremost among them ICAN, winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, which is a coalition of organizations around the world. In the United States, Nuclear Ban US has been developing tools to help us all encourage national, local, and state legislators to sign the ICAN Pledge, support the Norton bill, and introduce local resolutions. The Nuclear Ban Treaty Collaborative has been keeping a record of actions across the United States, and has a Facebook page where you can post YOUR actions supporting the TPNW.

IN THE HOUSE: The bill has consistently been submitted to the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees each session. If your Representative is on either of these committees, please ask him or her to cosponsor the bill, and to help get it out of committee and to the floor for debate and vote!

We have been told by a House legislative aide that the Armed Services Committee only votes on one bill each year -- the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) -- so we should ask the members of the committee to incorporate the language of the bill into the NDAA.

IN THE SENATE: On July 7, 2017, at the United Nations, 122 nations adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. At their 33rd triennial congress July 27-30, 2017, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-US Section launched a petition to the President and the Senate asking for ratification. Please print and get signatures on the paper petition and send to the address shown, AND please sign (and encourage everyone you know on social media to sign) the online petition supporting the nuclear weapons ban treaty as well. We hope and believe this will go viral!

Let your legislators know you want them to support a world without nuclear weapons! The Congressional Switchboard is 202-224-3121. The White House comment line is 202-456-1111.

History of the Bill

The bill was first introduced in 1994 as the "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act", then again in 1995, 1997, and 1999, when U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey (CA) joined Ms. Norton and several experts on nuclear disarmament issues to announce active support for the legislation, and again in 2001, 2003, and 2005 (when Representative Woolsey, plus John Lewis and Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, and Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas, quickly signed on). In 2007 there were no cosigners, but in 2009 John Lewis and Lynn Woolsey's aides repeatedly told us that they signed on to HR-1653, although you'd never know about it by searching Congressional bills. In 2009, Ms. Norton's announcement was timed to recognize Proposition One co-founder William Thomas, who had died on January 23rd.

During 2009 and 2010, Proposition One co-founder Ellen Thomas and a team from DC traveled 30,000 miles around the country learning about the entire nuclear chain, from uranium mines (reclaimed and not), to nuclear power and weapons plants, to radioactive storage facilities, and promoting voter initiatives everywhere. During that time they became convinced that we will never be sure of abolishing nuclear weapons until there are no longer nuclear power plants, which for sixty-plus years have been producing weapons-grade uranium and plutonium. The travelers received excellent suggestions for improving the language of the proposed bill, which up till then hadn't been getting much respect from Congress. They proposed revisions which Ms. Norton accepted in 2011.

The 2011 bill was renamed the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act." There were four sponsors for HR-1334, Representatives Steve Cohen (TN), Bob Filner (CA), Dennis Kucinich (OH), and Fortney Pete Stark (CA). Again, John Lewis and Lynn Woolsey's aides said they were signing on, but it didn't appear on the Congress website.

In 2013, Ms. Norton's said on introducing the bill, "Today, our country has a long list of urgent domestic needs that have been put on the back burner even though millions of Americans have lost their homes and jobs and sequestration has started. As the only nation that has used nuclear weapons in war, and that still possesses the largest nuclear weapons arsenal, I urge support for my bill to help the United States lead the world in redirecting funds that would otherwise go to nuclear weapons to be available for urgent domestic needs." Representative Raul Grijalva (AZ), co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus, signed on to HR-1650.

In 2015, when she introduced HR-1976, Ms. Norton wrote in her Dear Colleague letter, "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." John Lewis (GA), Raul Grijalva (AZ), and Lacy Clay (MO) signed on. And in spring, 2017, during a Nuclear-Free-Future tour, we were told by Lacy Clay and Raul Grijalva aides, and by Jan Schakowsky (Chicago, IL) personally, that they would sign on to the bill when introduced in the 115th Congress.

In 2017, when Ms. Norton introduced HR-3853, her press release read: "There is no greater threat to the future of our planet than nuclear war.... As we seek to eliminate North Korea's march toward achieving long-range nuclear weapons, our nation, with the world's largest nuclear arsenal, should lead by example by bringing nations together to begin negotiations on reducing our stockpiles of warheads and moving toward realizing a world without nuclear weapons." Cosponsors were Representatives Jan Schakowsky (IL) and Jim McGovern (MA). Lacy Clay and Raul Grijalva didn't show up on Congress.gov.

In 2019 members of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - US Section asked Ms. Norton to revise the language of the bill by naming the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in the first clause, eliminating the "date by" portion of the last clause, and removing (for later introduction as a separate bill, we hope) the clause calling for an end to war and all military operations, which was getting in the way of recruiting new cosponsors. Ms. Norton agreed to all the revisions, and was congratulated by Nobel Peace Prize winner ICAN's executive director, Beatrice Fihn, and Timmon Wallis and Vicki Elson of WILPF-US and NuclearBan.US, in this photo. On May 21, 2019, Representative Jim McGovern (MA) cosponsored HR-2419; Ms. Norton has cosponsored his Resolution which supports the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, H.Res 302. On October 11, 2019, Representative Ilhan Omar (Minneapolis, MN) became a cosponsor of HR-2419, and on October 30, 2019, Representative Barbara Lee (Oakland, CA) signed on. Sheila Jackson-Lee (Houston, TX) cosponsored again on January 15, 2020, as did Jan Schakowski (Chicago, IL) on January 29, 2020.

We were delighted that in 2019 Representative Jim McGovern introduced H.Res. 302, "Embracing the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons," which is a RESOLUTION that allows legislators to express their support for the Treaty, but it doesn't make law. Norton's BILL, on the other hand, creates a law which supports the treaty, and also provides funding for conversion of the war industries to provide for environmental restoration and clean-energy conversion. This is how to fund the Green New Deal and get rid of nukes too! Cosponsors are needed! Check the list of cosponsors in 2019-20 recorded online.

In 2021-2022, the bill was HR-2850. Its cosponsors were Representatives Jim McGovern (MA), Barbara Lee (CA), Ilhan Omar (MN), Mark Pocan (WI), Carolyn Maloney (NY), Rashida Tlaib (MI), Peter Welch (VT), Ayanna Pressley (MA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Pramila Jayapal (WA), Andy Levin (MI), Raul Grijalva (AZ), Mondaire Jones (NY), and Janice Schakowsky (IL). Please ask them to cosponsor once again!

In 2021 Ms. Norton filmed a statement which was broadcast during a webinar, "Move the Money from Global to Local, from War to Peace," at the 34th Triennial Congress of Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, US Section, in August 2021. This statement is as relevant for HR-2775 as it was for HR-2850.

Ms. Norton last introduced the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Conversion Act" as HR-2775 in the 118th Congress (2023-2024): "To direct the United States to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and convert nuclear weapons industry resources and personnel to purposes relating to addressing the climate crisis, and for other purposes."

There were five original cosponsors on April 20, 2023, Representatives Jim McGovern (MA), Raul Grijalva (AZ), Omar Ilhan (MN), Rashida Tlaib (MI), and Mark Pocan (WI). Pramila Jayapal (WA), Greg Casar (TX), Yvette Clark (NY), Barbara Lee (CA), Jan Schakowsky (IL), and Shri Thanedar (MI) also signed on in 2023; Chellie Pingree (ME) and Delia Ramirez (IL) signed on in 2024.

Other cosponsors over the years, now retired, have included David Minge and James Oberstar (Minnesota), Charles Rangel (New York), Al Wynn (Maryland), and Earl Hilliard (Alabama). As each Congressional session ends, all unvoted-on legislation expires and must be re-introduced.

Your help is needed in obtaining LOTS of cosponsors in this Congress! Bipartisan support would be very helpful.