HRES 1045 IHCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Recognizing the paramount need to address the threat of international terrorism and protect the global security of the United States by reducing the number and accessibility of nuclear weapons and preventing their proliferation, and directing a portion of the resulting savings towards child survival, hunger, and universal education, and calling on the President to take action to achieve these goals.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

March 13, 2008

Mr. MCGOVERN (for himself and Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign AffairsCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Recognizing the paramount need to address the threat of international terrorism and protect the global security of the United States by reducing the number and accessibility of nuclear weapons and preventing their proliferation, and directing a portion of the resulting savings towards child survival, hunger, and universal education, and calling on the President to take action to achieve these goals.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the United States and the Russian Federation have in the past entered into arms control treaties providing for reductions of several thousand nuclear delivery systems, including the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991 (START I) and the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987 (INF);CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas both countries retain several thousand nuclear weapons, delivery systems, and supporting infrastructure at a cost of many billions of dollars;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the United States and the Russian Federation now face different threats to their security since the end of the Cold War, notably that of international terrorism;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas international terrorism, particularly the danger posed by a terrorist entity acquiring a nuclear explosive device, requires that the countries redouble efforts to prevent the proliferation of such devices and the technology to produce them;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas since 1992, the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program of assistance to the Russian Federation and certain other states of the former Soviet Union, initiated under the leadership of Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar, has proven an effective and necessary tool to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction at a cost far below that of maintaining such weapons;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas additional reductions in nuclear armaments of both the United States and the Russian Federation, together with other nuclear powers, will--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

(1) meet the objective of the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons as prescribed in Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the vision of a nuclear-weapon-free world of Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev at the Reykjavik Summit of 1986;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

(2) reduce the number of nuclear weapons subject to diversion or theft by terrorist groups; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

(3) eventually make available additional funds in the range of tens of billions of dollars to further enhance international security, reduce world poverty, and address the root causes of international terrorism;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the United States and the Russian Federation, committed by international agreement as well as joint commitments by their respective Presidents, will reduce nuclear armaments in coming years and will encourage other countries to do likewise;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the Task Force on Department of Energy Nonproliferation Programs with Russia, commonly known as the Baker-Cutler Task Force, recommended in its final report of January 10, 2001, significant increases in the amounts of funding devoted to securing nuclear arsenals and other weapons of mass destruction;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the savings generated in the long term by significant reduction of nuclear armaments will be appreciable, with estimates as high as $13,000,000,000 annually, even in the face of the extra costs of eliminating a large portion of the nuclear arsenals of both the Russian Federation and the United States;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas on March 22, 2002, President George W. Bush stated that `We fight against poverty because hope is an answer to terror. We fight against poverty because opportunity is a fundamental right to human dignity. We fight against poverty because faith requires it and conscience demands it. We fight against poverty with a growing conviction that major progress is within our reach.';CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States of America, issued by the White House, noted that `a world where some live in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than $2 per day, is neither just nor stable. Including all of the world's poor in an expanding circle of development and opportunity is a moral imperative and one of the top priorities of U.S. international policy';CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (more commonly known as the 9/11 Commission Report), issued on July 22, 2004, recommended that a comprehensive U.S. strategy to counter terrorism should include policies that encourage development, more open societies, and opportunities that improve the lives of families and enhance prospects for their children's futures;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas addressing the needs of the very poor in the world, particularly children, reduces a source of international tension and local despair that contribute to terrorist initiatives;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas despite significant progress worldwide in reducing child mortality rates over time, the State of the World's Children 2008: Child Survival, released by UNICEF in January 2008, reports that 9,700,000 children under the age of 5 die every year, most from preventable and treatable causes;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas investing in the health and nutrition of children and their mothers is a sound economic decision and one of the surest ways for a country to set its course toward a better future;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas international health experts estimate that an additional $5,000,000,000 a year in global assistance for proven child survival interventions could save the lives of 6,000,000 young children each year;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas in sub-Saharan Africa, UNICEF and other organizations estimate that scaling up a minimum package of existing interventions delivered through effective, community-based health services could cut the region's child mortality rate by 30 percent, and the maternal mortality rate by 15 percent, at an estimated annual cost of $1,000 per life saved;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the United States supports child survival programs to meet the needs of children in poor countries through its contributions to international organizations and support for bilateral and multilateral programs;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas according to the United Nations World Food Program, more than 300,000,000 children suffer from chronic hunger, and an estimated 121,000,000 of these children, two-thirds of whom are girls, do not attend school;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas providing nutritious meals in schools has proven to be one of the most effective strategies to increase school attendance and enrollment, particularly among girls, decrease the incidence of hunger and malnutrition in school-age children, and help create literate, self-sustaining, and healthy societies;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the United States supports programs to address chronic hunger and malnutrition and promote universal education among adolescent and school-age children;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the World Food Programme and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations estimate that an additional $5,000,000,000 annually in global assistance for school feeding and other food supports could eliminate hunger and malnutrition among the world's school-age children; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas Americans consistently rank child survival and ending hunger in poor countries as a top priority of United States foreign assistance: Now, therefore, be itCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Resolved,CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This resolution may be cited as the `Global Security Priorities Resolution'.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

SEC. 2. SENSE OF THE HOUSE.

It is the sense of the House of Representatives that--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(1) the President should continue both negotiations with other countries and unilateral initiatives to achieve further reductions in nuclear arms to minimum levels;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(2) the President should agree to the verifiable reduction of deployed nuclear weapons of both the United States and the Russian Federation to equal levels of 1,000, and a total nuclear inventory of not more than 3,000, by the year 2015;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(3) the Cooperative Threat Reduction (Nunn-Lugar) Program should be enhanced and extended to third countries who request it as a truly cooperative, equally funded program between the United States and the Russian Federation to assist in the reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons throughout the world and to establish an environment of assurance that nuclear explosive material will not and cannot be diverted into the hands of terrorists; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(4) the funds saved through nuclear arms reductions should be used for cooperative threat reduction and to alleviate those problems in the world affecting children and families that can contribute to the support for international terrorism, including--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(A) as a first priority, allocating funds annually to extend the Nunn-Lugar Program at a rate of at least an additional $500,000,000 per year, and increased as warranted, to dismantle remaining weapons, establish verifiable safeguards, and improve accounting and physical security;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(B) increasing United States contributions to such programs as the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction and the Global Threat Reduction Initiative by an additional $2,500,000,000 annually over a period of 5 years, if and when it can be demonstrated that these programs can usefully absorb these funds;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(C) in addition to funds already available for such purposes, providing an additional $5,000,000,000 over a period of 5 years to enhance child survival in the world's most needy countries, by scaling up implementation of integrated packages of high-impact and low-cost health and nutrition interventions at the community level; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(D) in addition to funds already available for such purposes, providing an additional $1,500,000,000 annually over a period of 5 years for programs under title II of Public Law 480 (Food for Peace) and the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, specifically for programs targeted at reducing the incidence of child hunger and increasing child nutrition and educational opportunities.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink