Letter to The Hon. James Inhofe, Chairman on The Committee on Armed Services and The Hon. Jack Reed, Ranking Member on The Committee on Armed Services, and The Hon. Adam Smith, Chairman on The Committee on Armed Services, and The Hon Mac Thornberry, Ranking Member of The Committee on Armed Services - Markey, 21 Senate Colleagues Call for Maintaining Ndaa Provision Prohibiting Restart of Nuclear Weapons Testing

Letter

Dear Chairmen Inhofe and Smith and Ranking Members Reed and Thornberry:
We write to request that the Senate recede to Section 3121 of H.R. 6395, the Housepassed Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Section 3121 of the
House-passed NDAA prohibits FY2021 funds, and those from previous years, from being made
available to prepare for or to conduct a nuclear weapons test.1 Additionally, we ask that you
strike Section 3166 of the Senate NDAA, which authorizes not less than $10 million to "carry
out projects related to reducing the time required to execute a nuclear test if necessary."
These requests have become necessary because of the Trump administration's position on
the possible resumption of nuclear testing. On May 22, 2020, the Washington Post reported that
senior Trump administration officials advocated for a "demonstration" nuclear test in an effort to
bring Russia and China to the arms control negotiating table.2 Before John Bolton left his
position as National Security Advisor in September 2019, he publicly confirmed his advocacy
for withdrawing the United States from the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
3
And Ambassador Marshall Billingslea, Special Envoy for Arms Control, has refused to rule out a
provocative "demonstration" test, saying he "won't shut the door on it because why would we,"
while conceding that no technical or national security rationale exists for resumed U.S. nuclear
testing.

1 Section 3121 is adapted from the Preserving Leadership Against Nuclear Explosives Testing Act of 2020
("PLANET Act") first introduced in the Senate on June 4, 2020 and in the House of Representatives on June 8,
2020, https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markey-senate-colleagues-announce-legislationto-prohibit-restart-of-us-nuclear-weapons-testing.
2
John Hudson and Paul Somme, Trump administration discussed conducting first U.S. nuclear test in decades,
Washington Post (May 22, 2020), https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trumpadministrationdiscussed-conducting-first-us-nuclear-test-in-decades/2020/05/22/a805c904-9c5b-11eab60c3be060a4f8e1_story.html.
3
Julian Borger, White House held talks over resuming US nuclear tests, John Bolton says (July 22, 2020),
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/22/john-bolton-us-nuclear-tests-white-house.
Accordingly, we ask you to shut the door on the prospect of any renewed nuclear testing in
FY2021, which would only redound to our detriment. A U.S. nuclear weapons testing restart would
give license to other nuclear armed countries to conduct their own tests -- including Russia and
China, whose nuclear arsenals are especially in our national interest to restrain. The United States
has long worked to reduce the role and salience of nuclear weapons globally, and maintaining a
testing moratorium is central to preventing any country from making qualitative or quantitative
advances in its nuclear weapons programs. Indeed, in 2016, the United States led the adoption of
UN Security Council Resolution 2310, calling on all countries to maintain their moratoria on
nuclear-weapon tests.4 Lifting our testing moratorium without cause would severely harm our
reputation on the global stage, undermine our leadership, and make it difficult to hold states such
as Iran and North Korea accountable for violations of Security Council resolutions.
There is also no technical rationale for breaking the U.S. moratorium on nuclear weapons
testing. In February 2020, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator Lisa
Gordon-Hagerty testified that "the science based Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP)
supported certifying to the President for the 24th consecutive year that the U.S. nuclear weapons
stockpile remains, safe, secure, and reliable without the need for nuclear explosive testing."5
In
June 2020, in response to a letter from Congress, NNSA wrote that "nothing has changed" with
that assessment.6 NNSA further stated that "no funds have been expended or requested for [the]
purpose" of resuming nuclear explosive testing. Importantly, Section 3121 of the House-passed
NDAA does not interfere with the U.S. requirement under Presidential Directive 15 (1993) to
maintain a nuclear-test readiness posture of 24-36 months7
, and it explicitly allows for stockpile
stewardship activities that do not violate the "zero-yield" threshold of the CTBT, such as subcritical experiments conducted at the Nevada National Security Site.
A super majority of Americans, 71 percent, agree that we should not break the near three
decade U.S. moratorium on nuclear-weapons testing.8 This year, we commemorate the 75th
anniversary of the advent and the only uses of the atomic bomb. It is more appropriate than ever
that we continue to honor the moratorium on nuclear testing. We ask that, in conference on the
NDAA, you retain Section 3121 of the House-passed NDAA and strike Section 3166 of the

4 Meetings Coverage and Press Releases, Adopting Resolution 2310 (2016), Security Council Calls for Early Entry
into Force of Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, Ratification by Eight Annex 2 Hold-Out States, United Nations (Sept. 23,
2016), https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sc12530.doc.htm.
5 Testimony Statement of The Honorable Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and
Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration U.S. Department of Energy Before the House
Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, 116th Cong., 2
nd Sess. (2020)
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AP/AP10/20200304/110623/HHRG-116-AP10-Wstate-Gordon-HagertyL20200304.pdf.
6 Letter from Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty, Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administrator of the National
Nuclear Security Administration, U.S. Department of Energy to Adam Smith, Chairman of the Committee on
Armed Services (June 30, 2020)
7 Gary Martin. Scientists urge US not to resume nuke tests (June 19, 2020).
https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/scientists-urge-us-not-to-resume-nuke-tests2056802/
8 Stephen Herzog, Benoît Pelopidas, and Fabrício Fialho. Donald Trump Could Lose the Election by Authorizing a
New Nuclear Weapons Test (June 23, 2020). https://nationalinterest.org/feature/donald-trump-could-lose-electionauthorizing-new-nuclear-weapons-test-163328
Senate NDAA. Doing so will advance our national security and preserve longstanding U.S.
leadership in reducing the role, salience, and number of nuclear weapons globally.
Sincerely