Rep. Ellen Tauscher Introduces Legislation Calling on the Senate To Ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

Calls on Colleagues to Help Strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime

Washington, DC – Tomorrow, Rep. Ellen Tauscher will introduce legilstion designed to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime by urging the United States Senate to Ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).  This week marked the tenth anniversary of the United States signing the Treaty that bans all live tests of nuclear weapons.  While 135 nations have both signed and ratified the treaty, the United States is part of a group of 10 remaining nations including Syria and North Korea which has not yet ratified the Treaty and whose action is needed for the Treaty to go into effect.

“A tool this useful cannot be allowed to linger in the legislature while the world becomes more and more dangerous.  The CTBT is the strongest tool we have at our disposal to curb the spread and development of nuclear weapons around the globe,” said Rep. Tauscher.  “The Senate has waited for a decade to ratify the treaty.  The world has changed since then, and the threat of nuclear proliferation has grown exponentially.  It’s time to act,” noted Rep. Tauscher.

Former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry has backed the legislation saying, “I am happy to support this legislation. I and all the Joint Chiefs of Staff carefully reviewed the CTBT at the time of its signing.  This review included extensive briefings and discussions with all of the nuclear lab heads.  We came to a unanimous conclusion that the CTBT strongly served the security interests of the US.  This is still my conclusion.”

Kevin Knobloch, President of the Union of Concerned Scientists added: “I strongly support the resolution introduced by Representative Tauscher calling on the Senate to provide its advice and consent to the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The security interests of the United States would be best served in a world where no country ever again tests a nuclear weapon. Entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is the best way to ensure that outcome.

Since the original Senate debate, concerns raised about implementation of the CTBT have been thoroughly addressed. Independent nuclear weapons experts, including a 2002 National Academy of Sciences Panel, confirmed that the United States has the technical capabilities to maintain confidence in the safety and reliability of its existing nuclear-weapon stockpile under a test ban, provided that adequate resources are made available to the Department of Energy's nuclear-weapons complex and are properly focused on this task. The National Academy of Sciences panel, which included three former lab directors, found that age-related defects mainly related to non-nuclear components can be expected, but nuclear test explosions "are not needed to discover these problems and is not likely to be needed to address them.”  Because of this, Rep. Tauscher believes it is now time for the Senate to act and ratify this important part of a comprehensive national security plan.

The legislation has received bi-partisan support in the house and is co-sponsored by Rep. Tauscher’s colleagues Reps.  John Conyers, Sam Farr, Jose Serrano, James Leach, Steven Rothman, Pete Stark, Marty Meehan, Neil Abercrombie, Tom Allen, Joe Crowley, Loretta Sanchez, Ike Skelton, Jim McDermott, William Delahunt, Barbara Lee, Lloyd Doggett, George Miller, Nancy Pelosi, Doris Matsui, Patrick Kennedy, Jim McGovern, and Fortney Pete Stark.