US Mayors Urge Nuclear De-Escalation, Peace Leadership

Jacqueline Cabasso is Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation and Mayors for Peace North American Coordinator.

July 16, 2025, will mark the 80th anniversary of “Trinity,” the first nuclear test detonation at Alamogordo, New Mexico. August 6 and 9 will mark the 80th anniversaries of the United States' atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Rather than commemorating those somber anniversaries solely as a grim reminder of the past, this year they serve as a foreboding warning of what may be to come.

The 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, as well as chronic security crises on the Korean Peninsula and in the Middle East—constitute other potential nuclear flashpoints.

The recent armed clashes between India and Pakistan have demonstrated that the near-term risks of nuclear war are multifaceted and global.

Reflecting the urgency of this moment, on June 20—the day before the United States bombed Iran’s nuclear technology infrastructure—the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) International Affairs Standing Committee 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.” It was officially adopted at the closing session of the USCM’s 93rd Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida, on June 22.

During the committee meeting, Acting Chair Mayor Martha Guerrero of West Sacramento, California—one of the resolution’s co-sponsors—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.”

This is the twentieth consecutive year that the USCM has adopted a resolution submitted by U.S. members of Mayors for Peace.

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 official USCM policy and guide the organization’s advocacy efforts for the coming year.

The new Mayors for Peace resolution points out that world military expenditures rose to $2,718 billion in 2024, and that 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. This is 25 percent ($190 billion) more than the 2023 estimate of $756 billion for the 2023–2032 period.

In response to these escalating nuclear dangers and spiraling costs, the USCM:

Calls on the President to lead a global effort to move the world back from the nuclear brink, halt and reverse the nuclear arms race, and prevent nuclear war by engaging in good-faith negotiations with the other eight nuclear-armed states—particularly the Russian Federation and China—to halt any further buildup and to verifiably reduce and eliminate nuclear arsenals according to negotiated timetables.

Urges the renunciation by all nuclear-armed states of the option of using nuclear weapons first; the implementation of effective checks and balances on the Commander-in-Chief’s sole authority to order a nuclear strike; 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.

Calls on the President to protect communities and workers affected by nuclear weapons by fully remediating the deadly legacy of environmental contamination from nuclear testing, development, production, storage, and maintenance—and by providing health monitoring, compensation, and medical care to those harmed, including through an expanded Radiation Exposure Compensation Act program.

Calls on the President to actively plan a just economic transition for the civilian and military workforce involved in the nuclear weapons complex and for communities economically dependent on nuclear facilities and military bases.

It also urges Congress to pass H. Res. 317, introduced by Representative Jim McGovern (MA) on April 9, 2025, which encompasses all 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 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.

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.”

As noted 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. As of June 1, 2025, Mayors for Peace has grown to 8,487 cities in 166 countries and territories, with 230 U.S. members.

The USCM has once again charted a responsible path. It’s long past time for the federal government to listen to the elected representatives who are closest to the people. This resolution could not be more timely—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 2025 USCM Mayors for Peace resolution was sponsored by Mayor Quentin Hart of Waterloo, Iowa, and co-sponsored by Mayor Lacey Beaty (Beaverton, OR); Mayor LaToya Cantrell (New Orleans, LA); Mayor Brad Cavanagh (Dubuque, IA); Mayor Joy Cooper (Hallandale Beach, FL); Mayor Malik Evans (Rochester, NY); Mayor Martha Guerrero (West Sacramento, CA); Mayor Adena Ishii (Berkeley, CA); Mayor Elizabeth Kautz (Burnsville, MN); Mayor Kim Norton (Rochester, MN); Mayor Andy Schor (Lansing, MI); Mayor Matt Tuerk (Allentown, PA); Mayor Ellen Kamei (Mountain View, CA); Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson (Riverside, CA); Mayor Joshua Garcia (Holyoke, MA); and Mayor S.M. Fazlul Kabir (College Park, MD).