US Mayors urge US to reverse nuclear arms race

At the close of its 93rd Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida, on June 22, 2025, the final business plenary of the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) unanimously adopted a timely new resolution, “Urging the United States to Lead the World Back From the Brink of Nuclear War and Halt and Reverse the Nuclear Arms Race.” This is the twentieth consecutive year that the USCM has adopted resolutions submitted on behalf of U.S. members of Mayors for Peace.

On June 20, the day before the United States bombed Iran’s nuclear technology infrastructure, the USCM International Affairs Standing Committee considered and unanimously adopted the new resolution, passing it on to the business plenary for final adoption. During the committee meeting, Acting Chair, Mayor Martha Guerrero, of West Sacramento, California, one of the resolution’s cosponsors, noted, “In an increasingly interconnected world, mayors are stepping into the role of diplomats…. U.S. and international mayors are shaping foreign policy from the ground up.”

The resolution’s lead sponsor, Mayor Quentin Hart of Waterloo, Iowa, commented: “As an elected official and original sponsor, I recognize the value of human life and our duty as leaders to leave a better world for future generations. In this heightened hour of conflict and division this resolution rings as a reminder that we have so much work to do. It is essential to examine how we use nuclear weapons and to foster meaningful global dialogue to prevent nuclear conflict and promote peace. I am honored to stand alongside fellow mayors worldwide as a member of Mayors for Peace, advocating for a safer, more peaceful future.”

Jackie Cabasso, Mayors for Peace North American Coordinator, added: “This resolution could not be timelier – or more urgent. The shared common-sense commitment of mayors across the country and around the world to the global elimination of nuclear weapons is a beacon of hope in these dark times.” 

The new USCM resolution opens with a solemn reminder that “July 16, 2025, will mark the 80th anniversary of ‘Trinity,’ the first nuclear test detonation, at Alamagordo, New Mexico, and August 6 and 9 will mark the 80th anniversaries of the United States atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

Reflecting the urgency of the current moment, it continues, “[T]he Russian Federation’s nuclear threats in its war on Ukraine have made clear that the dangers of nuclear war are real and present; tensions around the world, including between the United States and China over Taiwan and the South China Sea, and the chronic security crises on the Korean Peninsula and in the Middle East, constitute other potential nuclear flashpoints; and the recent armed clashes between India and Pakistan have demonstrated that the near-term risks of nuclear war are multifaceted and global.” 

The resolution points out that, “[W]orld military expenditures rose to $2718 billion in 2024: the U.S. accounted for 37% of global military spending, more than the next nine countries combined, more than three times as much as China, and nearly seven times as much as Russia.” 

It notes that, “The Congressional Budget Office has projected that if carried out, U.S. plans to operate, sustain, and modernize its strategic and tactical nuclear delivery systems and the weapons they carry would cost a total of $946 billion over the 2025–2034 period, an average of about $95 billion a year, an amount 25 percent ($190 billion) larger than its 2023 estimate of $756 billion for the 2023–2032 period.”

In response to these escalating nuclear dangers and spiraling costs, “The United States Conference of Mayors calls on the President to lead a global effort to move the world back from the nuclear brink, halt and reverse a global nuclear arms race, and prevent nuclear war, by engaging in good faith negotiations with the other eight nuclear armed states, in particular the Russian Federation and China, to halt any further buildup of nuclear arsenals and to verifiably reduce and eliminate nuclear arsenals according to negotiated timetables; seeking the renunciation by all nuclear-armed states of the option of using nuclear weapons first; implementing effective checks and balances on the Commander in Chief’s sole authority to order the use of U.S. nuclear weapons; ending the Cold War-era “hair-trigger alert” posture; ending plans to produce and deploy new nuclear warheads and delivery systems; and maintaining the de facto global moratorium on nuclear explosive testing.”

The Conference also “calls on the President to protect communities and workers affected by nuclear weapons by fully remediating the deadly legacy of environmental contamination from past and current nuclear weapons testing, development, production, storage, and maintenance activities, and by providing health monitoring, compensation, and medical care to those who have and will be harmed by nuclear weapons research, testing, and production, including through an expanded Radiation Exposure Compensation Act program.”

It also “calls on the President to actively plan a just economic transition for the civilian and military workforce involved in the development, testing, production, management, and dismantlement of nuclear weapons and for the communities that are economically dependent on nuclear weapons laboratories, production facilities, and military bases.”

And it “urges Congress to pass H.R. 317, “Urging the United States to Lead the World Back From the Brink of Nuclear War and Halt and Reverse the Nuclear Arms Race,” which encompasses the above points.”

Finally, the resolution “calls on the Administration and Congress to cut increases in military and nuclear weapons spending and to restore funding for programs that are critical to American cities, including the Community Development Block Grant Program and the HOME Investment Partnership Program, and to preserve and strengthen Medicaid as a matter of public safety.”

As recognized in the resolution, “Mayors for Peace, led by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is working for a world without nuclear weapons, safe and resilient cities, and a culture of peace, and as of May 1, 2025, has grown to 8,479 cities in 166 countries and territories, with 229 U.S. members.” 

The USCM is the official nonpartisan association of more than 1,400 American cities with populations over 30,000. Resolutions adopted at its annual meetings become USCM official policy that guide the organization’s advocacy efforts for the coming year. 

The 2025 USCM Mayors for Peace resolution was sponsored by Mayor Quentin Hart, of Waterloo, Iowa, and cosponsored by Mayor Lacey Beaty, of Beaverton, Oregon; Mayor LaToya Cantrell, of New Orleans, Louisiana; Mayor Brad Cavanagh, of Dubuque, Iowa; Mayor Joy Cooper, of Hallandale Beach, Florida; Mayor Malik Evans, of Rochester, New York; Mayor Martha Guerrero, of West Sacramento, California; Mayor Adena Ishii, of Berkeley, California; Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, of Burnsville, Minnesota; Mayor Kim Norton, of Rochester, Minnesota; Mayor Andy Schor, of Lansing, Michigan; Mayor Matt Tuerk, of Allentown, Pennsylvania; Mayor Ellen Kamei, of Mountain View, California; Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson, of Riverside, California; Mayor Joshua Garcia, of Holyoke, Massachusetts; and Mayor S.M. Fazlul Kabir, of  College Park, Maryland.

Read the full resolution