§496 Consideration of Expansion of Nuclear Forces of Other Countries

Summary

At least 60 days before the President recommends reducing U.S. nuclear forces, the President must send a report to the appropriate congressional committees. The report must include the intelligence community’s high, medium, and low confidence assessments for every country with nuclear weapons about: how many of each kind they have, their modernization plans, their production capacity for warheads and strategic delivery systems, their nuclear doctrine, and how the proposed U.S. cuts would affect U.S. deterrence and protection of allies. The Commander of U.S. Strategic Command must also tell those committees whether the cuts will harm the U.S. ability to handle unexpected strategic or geopolitical events or technical challenges, or weaken U.S. deterrence or reassurance to friends and allies. The main report must be unclassified but can include a classified annex. “Appropriate congressional committees” means the congressional defense committees, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.