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August 12, 1999
Whereas accidental or mistaken launch of a nuclear missile could devastate a city, and launch of a nuclear force could wreak worldwide destruction;
Whereas the United States and Russia currently maintain thousands of nuclear weapons on "hair-trigger" alert, such that they can be fired within minutes;
Whereas in several incidents false signals of missile attacks have triggered a process in which national leaders had to decide in only a few minutes whether to fire nuclear weapons;
Whereas the failure of computers to recognize the year 2000 date change could infect command, control, communications, and intelligence systems, causing false signals or blank monitoring screens;
Whereas Russian monitoring and control systems are deteriorating;
Whereas a massive preemptive attack attempting to destroy the nuclear weapons capability of either Russia or the United States is extremely unlikely, and mutual measures to slow the firing of nuclear weapons would make a preemptive strike even more difficult;
Whereas much of the nuclear force of each country, including submarines at sea and mobile land-based missiles, is almost invulnerable and thus would preserve retaliatory ability through a nuclear attack, making immediate firing of weapons unnecessary;
Whereas President Bush in 1991 ordered a unilateral stand-down of United States strategic bombers and de-alerted some missiles, and Soviet President Gorbachev quickly reciprocated with similar actions, improving bilateral relations and national security;
Whereas removing further missiles from hair-trigger alert would help alleviate recent tensions between Russia and the United States; and
Whereas there are several ways that land and submarine based weapons could be temporarily disabled, with times ranging from minutes to weeks in order to reactivate them:
Now, therefore be it
RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (THE SENATE CONCURRING), That it is
the sense of the Congress that---
1) the United States, Russia, and other nuclear powers should negotiate an agreement to take all of their nuclear weapons off of high-alert status in order to decrease the risk of accidental or mistaken firing of nuclear weapons;
2) to further such an agreement, the United States should immediately take off of hair-trigger alert as many of its nuclear weapons as is feasible and consistent with national security, and should encourage Russia to reciprocate;
3) the Department of Defense and the State Department should study methods to increase further the time needed to launch all nuclear missiles and study the effect these actions would have on nuclear deterrence, relations with other recognized nuclear powers, the international nuclear nonproliferation regime, and other aspects of national security; and
4) the President should expedite the establishment of a United States-Russian joint early-warning center to ensure accurate detection of any missiles and effective communication in the even of a false alarm, computer malfunction, accident, or diplomatic crisis, as set forth in the "Joint Statement on the Exchange of Information on Missile Launches and Early Warning", agreed to in 1998, and should facilitate the establishment of a temporary center before the end of 1999 that could address any problems which might arise due to the failure of computers to recognize the year 2000 date change.
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