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U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) reintroduced legislation to prevent the president from launching a nuclear first strike without congressional approval.
Their bill, the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2019 (H.R.669/S.200), was also introduced in the 115th Congress but never made it out of committee. “First-use nuclear strike” means a nuclear weapons attack against an enemy that is conducted without the president determining that the enemy has first launched a nuclear strike against the United States or a U.S. ally.
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County), Congressman Ted Yoho (R-FL) and Congressman Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) introduced the Yemen Refueling Prohibition Act, which would stop the United States from providing the in-flight refueling of Saudi or Saudi-led coalition aircraft conducting missions in Yemen. The legislation comes after years of failures by both the Obama and Trump Administrations to mitigate the U.S.’s role in civilian casualties from coalition-led airstrikes.
Upon introduction, Mr. Lieu said:
REP LIEU AND SEN MARKEY REINTRODUCE BILL TO LIMIT PRESIDENT’S ABILITY TO LAUNCH NUCLEAR FIRST STRIKE
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) and Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) announced the reintroduction of legislation to prevent the president from launching a nuclear first strike without congressional approval. Rep. Lieu and Sen. Markey announced the reintroduction of the “Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2019” (H.R.669/S.200) at a press conference today alongside nuclear arms control leaders, who urged Congress to take action to prevent nuclear war.
U.S. lawmakers and nuclear arms control leaders are set to hold a news conference Tuesday to discuss limiting the power of U.S. presidents to launch a nuclear strike.
Democratic Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Congressman Ted Lieu of California are seeking to limit the ability of "President Donald Trump or any U.S. president to launch a nuclear first strike without a declaration of war by Congress," a statement they released Tuesday said.
The statement cited the incident in 2018 when the president taunted North Korea over the size of his nuclear button.
WASHINGTON - Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) issued the following statement after the House passed the Hack Your State Department Act, 377-3. The bill will strengthen cyber defenses for the State Department by tapping ethical hackers to identify vulnerabilities in State Department’s networks and data systems.
WASHINGTON - Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) was sworn into his third term in Congress. Rep. Lieu, a veteran, was first elected in 2014 and has since proudly served California’s 33rd Congressional District. In the 116th Congress, Rep. Lieu will sit on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He will also serve in House Leadership as a Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC) Co-Chair.
“Change is coming.
WASHINGTON - Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) and Congressman Ken Calvert (R-CA), co-chairs of the California Aerospace Caucus, sent a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis urging him to utilize California’s existing aerospace assets including the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center when building out a Space Force.
In the letter, the Members write:
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) issued the following statement after the Senate passed H.R. 7327, a bill package that includes the Hack the Department of Homeland Security Act. The bill would establish a bug bounty pilot program – modeled off of similar programs at the Department of Defense and major tech companies. The program will strengthen cyber defenses at DHS by utilizing “white-hat” or ethical hackers to help identify unique and undiscovered vulnerabilities in the DHS networks and data systems. Reps.
WASHINGTON - Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) issued the following statement after it was reported that the Trump Administration would be withdrawing troops from Syria.
"I strongly agree with the President’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria. Congress never authorized the US to go to war in Syria. While going after terrorists is authorized, both the Obama and Trump Administrations went far beyond the congressionally authorized use of force against terrorists.