Rep. Salud Carbajal doesn’t support a treaty banning nuclear weapons. Why not?

Rep. Salud Carbajal is refusing to endorse and advocate for the International Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Treaty was adopted by 122 nations and ours was one of those that boycotted the negotiations.

In a Sept. 1 letter, Carbajal said he, “shares (my) concerns” about “nuclear non-proliferation agreements,” but neglects to express his position on the Treaty.

I informed him that this is completely unacceptable, and asked him to explain his negligence on this matter. I encourage others to do likewise. Our survival may depend on it.

His email address is congressmancarbajal@mail.house.gov.

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Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, replies:

The risk nuclear weapons pose to humankind is far too high for any country to possess them. I firmly believe the United States should work toward nuclear disarmament.

The fact is, signing the International Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons would require the United States to commit to never using or threatening the use of nuclear weapons. It would also ban developing and ultimately require eliminating all our nuclear weapons. While complete disarmament is ultimately my goal for our nation, there are nine other nations that also possess nuclear weapons – none of which have signed this treaty. America’s unilateral disarmament would greatly threaten our national security, as we would eliminate our deterrent capabilities against nations such as North Korea.

As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I am critical of the Department of Defense (DoD)’s desire to increase its nuclear weapons stockpile. During a committee hearing this year, I directly questioned Defense Secretary James Mattis about the $1 trillion cost to sustain our nuclear weapons program. I also expressed my concerns that military leaders tend to only discuss modernization and increasing our nuclear weapons, but we sideline any discussion about the threat of nuclear proliferation.

To my surprise, he agreed with me.

That is why this year I worked to successfully pass legislation in the 2018 Defense Authorization Act that requires the Secretary of Defense to submit a report on the impacts of nuclear proliferation and how the DoD plans to respond. It is a small step, but I believe it is an important one to raise awareness and to hold the DoD accountable.

I have also co-sponsored the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017, which prohibits the president from using the Armed Forces to conduct a first-use nuclear strike unless authorized by Congress. Additionally, I believe the United States must finally ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). This treaty bans states from conducting nuclear tests as any type of nuclear testing sends the wrong message to the world.

At a time when tensions are high in dealing with erratic foreign leaders, including the threat from North Korea, it is ultimately too dangerous to fully renounce our nuclear weapons capability. I know this may fall short of your expectations for now, but I will not stop working to reduce the number of nuclear weapons until one day, our nation and our world is finally free of them.

This story was originally published November 20, 2017 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Rep. Salud Carbajal doesn’t support a treaty banning nuclear weapons. Why not?."