The Increasing Threat of Nuclear Weapons

Floor Speech

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Ms. PINGREE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on the House to prioritize disarmament diplomacy.

Mr. Speaker, 2024 marks 80 years since the world was introduced to nuclear weapons. In that time, there have been several instances when complete catastrophe was at our doorstep. At the height of the Cold War, we narrowly avoided a nuclear exchange during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thanks to extraordinary leadership, the United States and Soviet Union were able to pull back from the brink at the very last minute.

Years later, early warning system errors, once again, brought us within minutes of a nuclear exchange, and we are not the only countries that have nearly ended life on Earth through nuclear escalation.

Today, there are close to 13,000 nuclear weapons across the globe, a figure that continues to rise at an alarming rate because the world is turning away from nuclear nonproliferation treaties. Nine countries currently own nuclear weapons, while six others have them stored within their borders.

While many of these countries are historically rational actors within the international community, countries that see nuclear weapons as the ultimate deterrent, the ever-changing state of the world today demands that we not remain complacent. Not all nuclear states are rational actors, and there is no guarantee that rational nuclear states will always remain rational.

As Putin continues to attack Ukraine and threaten Europe and the United States with nuclear war, the world is made less safe. When Kim Jong Un supplies Putin with soldiers to fight in Ukraine, North Korea inches closer to launching a nuclear strike. In the Middle East, where ISIS-K is reemerging in Pakistan amid political and economic instability, the prospect of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of bad actors grows by the day. Years after the Trump administration decided to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, we risk yet another adversary developing a nuclear arsenal.

As democracy deteriorates across the globe, even the United States is not impervious to nuclear weapons falling into the hands of extremists.

The world today is far different from what it was at the end of World War II, yet our policy toward nuclear weapons has not fundamentally changed. Now more than ever, we must pursue nuclear disarmament. Rather than bringing the world closer to disaster, let us prioritize disarmament diplomacy and make real progress to creating a safer, better world for our children, our grandchildren, and all generations to come.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for organizing this Special Order hour, and I encourage all Members of Congress to cosponsor H. Res. 77.

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