I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2894 To prohibit the use of Federal funds to launch a nuclear weapon using an autonomous weapons system that is not subject to meaningful human control, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 26, 2023 Mr. LIEU (for himself, Mr. BUCK, and Mr. BEYER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in ad- dition to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subse- quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To prohibit the use of Federal funds to launch a nuclear weapon using an autonomous weapons system that is not subject to meaningful human control, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Block Nuclear Launch 4 by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act of 2023’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress finds the following: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:22 May 05, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2894.IH H2894 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2894 IH (1) Department of Defense Directive 3000.09 1 defines ‘‘autonomous weapons system’’ as a weapons 2 system that, once activated, can select and engage 3 targets without further intervention by an operator. 4 (2) Article 3, clause 8 of the United Nations 5 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons pro- 6 hibits the indiscriminate use of weapons, which is 7 defined as ‘‘any placement of such weapons . . . 8 which may be expected to cause incidental loss of ci- 9 vilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian ob- 10 jects, or a combination thereof, which would be ex- 11 cessive in relation to the concrete and direct military 12 advantage anticipated’’. 13 (3) Section 5.10 of the Department of Defense 14 Law of War Manual states ‘‘[c]ommanders, at all 15 levels, have a great responsibility to exercise the 16 leadership necessary to reduce the risk of harm to 17 civilians and civilian objects’’. 18 (4) In a report on autonomous weapons systems 19 published on December 1, 2021, Human Rights 20 Watch and the International Human Rights Clinic 21 of Harvard Law School argue that ‘‘[r]obots lack 22 the compassion, empathy, mercy, and judgment nec- 23 essary to treat humans humanely, and they cannot 24 understand the inherent worth of human life’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:22 May 05, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2894.IH H2894 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2894 IH (5) The 2022 Nuclear Posture Review states 1 ‘‘[i]n all cases, the United States will maintain a 2 human ‘in the loop’ for all actions critical to inform- 3 ing and executing decisions by the President to ini- 4 tiate and terminate nuclear weapon employment’’. 5 (6) The National Security Commission on Arti- 6 ficial Intelligence, established by Congress pursuant 7 to section 1051 of the National Defense Authoriza- 8 tion Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (Public Law 115– 9 232), recommends that the United States ‘‘clearly 10 and publicly affirm existing U.S. policy that only 11 human beings can authorize employment of nuclear 12 weapons and seek similar commitments from Russia 13 and China’’. 14 (7) On February 16, 2023, the Department of 15 State issued a Political Declaration on Responsible 16 Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy, 17 which includes the following statement: ‘‘States 18 should maintain human control and involvement for 19 all actions critical to informing and executing sov- 20 ereign decisions concerning nuclear weapons’’. 21 (8) Large-scale nuclear war would lead to the 22 deaths of millions of people, firestorms, radioactive 23 fallout contamination, agricultural failure, and cata- 24 strophic climate results. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:22 May 05, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2894.IH H2894 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2894 IH (9) To comply with international humanitarian 1 law, human control and human legal judgment are 2 essential in the nuclear command and control proc- 3 ess. 4 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 5 It is the sense of Congress that— 6 (1) the use of lethal, autonomous nuclear weap- 7 ons systems that are not subject to meaningful 8 human control cannot properly adhere to inter- 9 national humanitarian law; and 10 (2) any decision to launch any nuclear weapon 11 should not be made by artificial intelligence. 12 SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON USE OF FEDERAL FUNDS TO DE- 13 PLOY NUCLEAR WEAPONS WITH AUTONO- 14 MOUS WEAPONS SYSTEMS NOT SUBJECT TO 15 MEANINGFUL HUMAN CONTROL. 16 (a) IN GENERAL.—None of the funds authorized to 17 be appropriated or otherwise made available for any fiscal 18 year may be obligated or expended to use an autonomous 19 weapons system that is not subject to meaningful human 20 control to— 21 (1) launch a nuclear weapon; or 22 (2) select or engage targets for the purposes of 23 launching a nuclear weapon. 24 (b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:22 May 05, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2894.IH H2894 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 2894 IH (1) The term ‘‘autonomous weapons system’’ 1 has the meaning given such term in Department of 2 Defense Directive 3000.09, titled ‘‘Autonomy in 3 Weapons Systems’’ as in effect on the date of the 4 enactment of this Act. 5 (2) The term ‘‘meaningful human control’’ 6 means, with respect to an autonomous weapons sys- 7 tem, human control of— 8 (A) the selection and engagement of tar- 9 gets; and 10 (B) the time, location, and manner of use. 11 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:22 May 05, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2894.IH H2894 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS