Horsford, Rosen Slam Trump Decision to Resume Nuclear Weapon Tests
November 3, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steven Horsford (NV-04) and Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) co-led the Nevada Congressional delegation in sending a letter to President Donald Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Brandon Williams, expressing outrage at recent news that the administration intends to resume tests of nuclear weapons.
“Nuclear weapons threaten every person on this planet — and President Trump’s reckless decision to resume testing endangers us all,” Rep. Horsford said. “For more than three decades, presidents of both parties have recognized that real strength in the nuclear age comes from restraint and global leadership, not provocation. This move abandons that legacy and undermines America’s strategic credibility on the world stage. By reigniting the most dangerous arms race in human history, this president is making the world less stable, less safe, and less secure. And for Nevada, it threatens to reopen one of the darkest chapters in our state’s history when radioactive fallout poisoned our air, our land, and our people. We cannot allow history to repeat itself.”
Key excerpts from the lawmakers’ letter:
The decision announced last week on Truth Social is unnecessary, dangerous, and scientifically unjustified. It threatens to reawaken one of the darkest chapters in Nevada’s history, endangers American lives, and undermines decades of bipartisan work to keep our nation and the world safe from the devastation of nuclear war.…
[T]o even contemplate detonating nuclear weapons again on U.S. soil is a betrayal of science, of safety, and of the American people... [It] risks igniting a new global nuclear arms race, signaling to adversaries that the U.S. is abandoning its leadership and commitment to restrain and nonproliferation.
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No country except for North Korea has conducted an explosive nuclear test in this century. The sudden reversal weakens our diplomatic credibility, endangers our allies, and undermines international security.
The Silver State is uniquely impacted by America’s past nuclear testing, which had devastating human and environmental consequences on Nevada and neighboring states. From 1951 to 1992, the federal government conducted more than 900 nuclear tests in Nevada, releasing radioactive fallout across the American West and leaving a legacy of illness, contamination, and broken trust. Many Nevadans and downwind communities suffered from those exposures and are still waiting for justice and compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA).
The lawmakers’ letter makes three specific demands of the administration:
- Reaffirm the U.S. moratorium on explosive nuclear weapons testing and immediately halt any preparatory activities that could signal intent to resume such testing.
- Provide Congress with a detailed accounting of all ongoing or proposed site activities related to nuclear or subcritical testing.
- Provide to Congress the estimated costs required to conduct a full scale nuclear explosive test in terms of equipment, personnel, time, environmental impacts, and strategic rationale.
Full text of the letter is available here.
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