The United States would adopt an official policy not to start a war using nuclear weapons, under legislation announced Wednesday by the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a Democrat member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is mulling a presidential run.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), HASC chair, posted a draft version of the bill on his website. The textually diminutive measure had no formal name at deadline Wednesday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, and contained barely two lines’ worth of legislative direction: “It is the policy of the United States not to use nuclear weapons first.”
“Our current nuclear strategy is not just outdated—it is dangerous,” Smith and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in a joint statement posted online. “By making clear that deterrence is the sole purpose of our arsenal, this bill would reduce the chances of a nuclear miscalculation and help us maintain our moral and diplomatic leadership in the world.”
Smith could insert the bill’s language into the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act: the annual must-pass measure that sets funding limits and policy for defense programs, including those managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Smith and Warren announced their bill the same month Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) introduced a separate no-first-use bill. That measure, which has been filed in every Congress dating to the 114th in 2016, is longer on policy prescriptions than the newer bill.
The Lieu-Markey legislation — which has never gotten out of committee — would codify that no president may launch nuclear weapons “unless such strike is conducted pursuant to a declaration of war by Congress,” and unless the president determined “that the enemy has first launched a nuclear strike against the United States or an ally of the United States.”
No first use has gained traction among high-profile congressional Democrats on the Hill. Warren espoused the idea as part of a three-point nuclear policy in December, a month before announcing she had formed a committee to explore a run for the White House in 2020.
