H.R. 6465 — HALT Act of 2025

This section states 13 congressional findings concerning the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons; historical efforts including a 1982 rally of 1 million people, bilateral arms control treaties, and a more than 90% U.S. stockpile reduction from 31,255 warheads in 1967; obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; advancements in verification technologies and stockpile stewardship obviating the need for nuclear testing; rising global nuclear tensions and modernization; the unnecessary nature of certain nuclear systems; the New START Treaty extension; the feasibility of a one-third reduction in deployed nuclear weapons from New START levels; and statements by U.S. leaders on nuclear policy.

This section declares the following to be the policy of the United States on nuclear arms reduction and disarmament: (1) lead international negotiations on specific arms-reduction measures as part of a 21st century global nuclear freeze movement; (2) engage all nuclear-armed countries to negotiate multilateral arms control, disarmament, and risk reduction agreements that include provisions such as resumption of New START Treaty on-site inspections and verification measures, a verifiable freeze on nuclear weapons testing, production, and deployment, numerical ceilings on deployed shorter-range, intermediate-range, and strategic delivery systems and associated warheads at August 2, 2019, levels for P5 countries and others as possible, no-first-use policies or transparency on nuclear declaratory policy, a UN Security Council resolution expanding IAEA access to NPT-noncompliant countries, refraining from launch-on-warning postures, not targeting nuclear command, control, and communications infrastructure, limits on hypersonic systems, and transparency on aggregate nuclear weapons numbers; (3) pursue a verifiable Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty in the UN Conference on Disarmament or another forum; (4) convene head-of-state summits on nuclear disarmament modeled on the Nuclear Security Summits; (5) seek Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and mobilize Annex 2 countries for entry into force; and (6) refrain from developing new nuclear warhead or bomb designs and seek reciprocal commitments from other nuclear-armed countries.

This section prohibits the obligation or expenditure of funds authorized for FY2026 or any fiscal year thereafter—or authorized for any prior fiscal year and available for obligation as of enactment—for conducting or preparing for any explosive nuclear weapons test producing any yield until (1) the President submits to Congress an addendum to the prior year's annual stockpile assessment report under 50 U.S.C. 2525 (i.e., the report required by Dec. 1 each year from national security laboratory heads and the Commander of U.S. Strategic Command on the safety, reliability, performance, and military effectiveness of each stockpile weapon type) detailing any changes in stockpile condition; and (2) Congress enacts a joint resolution approving the test. This section states that the prohibition does not limit nuclear stockpile stewardship activities consistent with the zero-yield standard and other legal requirements.