HALT Act of 2025
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill states United States policy to pursue a global nuclear freeze and related arms-control measures and bars federal spending on explosive nuclear weapons tests unless the President provides updated stockpile information and Congress approves the test.
Who Benefits and How
People concerned about nuclear escalation and arms-race risks could benefit from a declared U.S. policy favoring multilateral arms control and from a statutory barrier to renewed explosive nuclear testing.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The executive branch and federal nuclear weapons programs would face added legal and procedural constraints before conducting any explosive nuclear test.
Key Provisions
- Declares that the United States should pursue multilateral nuclear freeze, arms-control, and no-first-use-related negotiations.
- Seeks follow-on arrangements to New START and broader multilateral nuclear-risk reduction measures.
- Prohibits spending on explosive nuclear weapons tests unless the President submits updated stockpile information and Congress passes a joint resolution approving the test.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
This bill states United States policy to pursue a global nuclear freeze and related arms-control measures and bars federal spending on explosive nuclear weapons tests unless the President provides updated stockpile information and Congress approves the test.
Key Policy Areas
National Security, Foreign Affairs, Government Administration
Primary Purpose
This bill states United States policy to pursue a global nuclear freeze and related arms-control measures and bars federal spending on explosive nuclear weapons tests unless the President provides updated stockpile information and Congress approves the test.
Policy Domains
Main Provisions
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Arms-control advocates and communities seeking stronger barriers to renewed nuclear testing
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Executive branch officials and federal nuclear testing programs facing new approval constraints
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Markey (for himself and Mr. Merkley) introduced the following …
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
Introduced in Senate
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Federal nuclear weapons testing programs that face new spending and approval constraints
People and communities seeking to avoid renewed explosive nuclear testing
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology