S 1556

This bill is a resolution by the Massachusetts General Court (state legislature) that formally acknowledges nuclear weapons as an existential threat to the Commonwealth and endorses international nuclear disarmament efforts. The resolution congratulates countries that have ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and endorses the "Back from the Brink" platform, which calls for specific federal actions including renouncing first-use of nuclear weapons, ending sole presidential authority to launch nuclear attacks, taking weapons off hair-trigger alert, and canceling nuclear modernization plans. While acknowledging that nuclear weapons policy is primarily a federal matter, the resolution establishes it as official state policy to pursue measures to protect Massachusetts citizens from nuclear threats and contribute to disarmament efforts, following the state's historical precedent from the 1980s Nuclear Freeze movement.