ACTION ALERT: The New START Treaty
Is Expiring — Congress Must Act
Win Without War
(March 6, 2025) — Make no mistake: as Trump tries to position himself as a leader on arms control, a healthy dose of skepticism is in order.
Now, despite changing his tune to speak out against the sky-high costs and risks of nuclear weapons, Trump is simultaneously directing the Pentagon to waste billions on upgrading and expanding the nuclear arsenal.
Meanwhile, our sources on the Hill tell us that Speaker Johnson is proposing a year-long spending bill that would boost nuclear weapons production with almost $200 million — at the same time he’d slash the budgets of programs that keep dangerous radiological materials out of the hands of bad actors. The only ones who truly stand to benefit from these schemes? Weapons contractors.
So when Trump talks about nonproliferation, cuts to Pentagon spending, and arms treaties we’ll take his words with a grain of salt — but that doesn’t mean we’re giving up on our work to build a world free from the threat of nuclear war for one second.
Instead, we’re turning toward leaders we know can trust: Representative Bill Foster and Senator Ed Markey, who have introduced a bicameral resolution that will get the US nuclear policy on the right track — and help stop an accelerating arms race in its tracks.[1]
But with just months left before New START expires – and with it the last thread of global arms control — the clock is ticking. Can you take 30 seconds to help us build the pressure to ensure this resolution becomes US policy now?
Make no mistake: as Trump tries to position himself as a leader on arms control, a healthy dose of skepticism is in order.
Now, despite changing his tune to speak out against the sky-high costs and risks of nuclear weapons, Trump is simultaneously directing the Pentagon to waste billions on upgrading and expanding the nuclear arsenal.
Meanwhile, our sources on the Hill tell us that Speaker Johnson is proposing a year-long spending bill that would boost nuclear weapons production with almost $200 million — at the same time he’d slash the budgets of programs that keep dangerous radiological materials out of the hands of bad actors. The only ones who truly stand to benefit from these schemes? Weapons contractors.
So when Trump talks about nonproliferation, cuts to Pentagon spending, and arms treaties we’ll take his words with a grain of salt — but that doesn’t mean we’re giving up on our work to build a world free from the threat of nuclear war for one second.
Instead, we’re turning toward leaders we know can trust: Representative Bill Foster and Senator Ed Markey, who have introduced a bicameral resolution that will get the US nuclear policy on the right track — and help stop an accelerating arms race in its tracks.[1]
But with just months left before New START expires – and with it the last thread of global arms control — the clock is ticking. Can you take 30 seconds to help us build the pressure to ensure this resolution becomes US policy now?
H.Res.100/S.Res.61 calls for nuclear negotiations with Russia and China and an end to dangerous nuclear brinkmanship that keeps the world on a knife’s edge. It’s the kind of commonsense policy that can maintain and build the arms control agreements we need to prevent global catastrophe.
The costs of inaction at this moment are sky-high. Unless a new agreement is in place by next year, there will be NO legal limits on US or Russian strategic nuclear forces, and decades of work to reduce the threat of nuclear war will be upended.
Al Frankin, Ed Markey and Bernie Sanders.
The Foster-Markey resolution can change course by:
- Condemning the Russian Federation’s escalatory nuclear rhetoric and veiled threats on the potential use of nuclear weapons to further its invasion of Ukraine.
- Condemning the Russian Federation’s purported suspension of the New START Treaty.
- Calling for the Russian Federation to promptly return to full implementation of New START, including on-site inspections, provision of treaty-mandated notifications and data, and resumption of Bilateral Consultative Commission meetings.
- Calling on the Trump Administration to continue to engage the People’s Republic of China in further bilateral talks on nuclear risk reduction and arms control, and to pursue new multilateral arms control efforts.
- Calling on the Trump Administration to continue to pursue nuclear arms control and risk reduction dialogue with the Russian Federation to maintain strategic stability, ensure the conflict in Ukraine does not escalate to nuclear use, and avoid an unrestrained nuclear arms race.
This legislation can shepherd a return to the diplomacy and arms control agreements that have avoided nuclear war multiple times. Now, with those agreements crumbling, we need new leadership to restore them before it’s too late. The Markey-Foster resolution sends a clear message: The US government can and must take the lead in preventing nuclear war.
We cannot afford to let political gridlock stand in the way of our shared safety. H.Res.100/S.Res.61 paves the way to reduce the nuclear threat by calling for a return to New START compliance and demands renewed arms control negotiations that can prevent catastrophe. Can you help build the bipartisan support this legislation needs to become a cornerstone of US foreign policy?
Five years ago, Trump left office with the world on the brink of nuclear chaos. Under his watch, the US government pulled out of critical nuclear treaties, let arms control agreements collapse, and handed Russia and others a free pass to expand their nuclear arsenal.
With the last major nuclear arms control agreement, New START, expiring in 2026, if Congress doesn’t act, we’ll be left without any limits on nuclear weapons for the first time in decades.
The good news? It’s a fate we can work to change by speaking out now.
Thank you for working for peace,
The Win Without War team
Source:
1. Press Release, “Foster Leads Bicameral Effort to Strengthen Nuclear Arms Control Regimes”
