"Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion" - the 114th Time's the Charm!

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton with members of Women's International 
League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

In session after session of Congress, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC) introduces a bill calling for nuclear disarmament. Here's the summary of the version from the 2013-14 Congress (the 113th), known as "H.R.1650 - Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act of 2013":

Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act of 2013 - Requires the government: (1) to provide leadership to negotiate and enter into a multilateral treaty or other international agreement that provides for the dismantlement and elimination, under strict international control, of all nuclear weapons in every country by 2020; (2) once the President certifies that all countries have eliminated such weapons or begun such elimination under established legal requirements, to redirect resources that are being used for nuclear weapons programs to addressing human and infrastructure needs and to converting nuclear weapons industry employees, processes, plants, and programs to constructive, ecologically beneficial peacetime activities; (3) to undertake efforts to eliminate war, armed conflict, and all military operations; and (4) to promote policies to induce all other countries to join in such commitments.

Rep. Norton can be expected to reintroduce the bill in the new Congress this spring. Will the 114th be the charm?

Considering that the eyes of the world will be on the U.S. this spring as nations meet at the UN in New York to consider the fate of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in the face of continued refusal of the U.S. to honor its treaty obligations to disarm, it certainly seems that this is the year for this bill to get passed and acted upon.

What I'm wondering is: will Rep. Norton have the support of her colleagues in the Progressive Caucus?

Or is Congress willing to accept the autocracy of a thermonuclear monarch?


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