October 31, 2025
Ms. Titus introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services
To amend the Atomic Energy Defense Act to prohibit explosive testing of nuclear weapons conducted by the United States, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Renewing Efforts to Suspend Testing and Reinforce Arms-control Initiatives Now Act
or the RESTRAIN Act
.
Sec. 2. Prohibition on explosive testing of nuclear weapons conducted by the United States
Section 4210 of the Atomic Energy Defense Act (division D of the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107–314; 50 U.S.C. 2530)) is amended—
(1)
by striking subsection (a) and inserting the following:
(a) Prohibition on testing
No explosive testing of a nuclear weapon, or any other nuclear explosion, may be conducted by the United States.; and
(2)
by adding at the end the following new subsections:
(c) Limitation on availability of funds
None of the funds authorized to be appropriated by an Act authorizing funds for fiscal year 2026 or otherwise made available for any fiscal year may be used—
(1)
to conduct explosive testing of a nuclear weapon; or
(2)
for any other nuclear explosion.
(d) Rule of construction
(1) In general
Nothing in this section may be constructed to limit the authority of the United States to conduct a subcritical nuclear test.
(2) Subcritical nuclear test defined
In this subsection, the term
subcritical nuclear testmeans a nuclear test of fissile materials that are not capable of sustaining an explosive nuclear chain reaction.