The RESTRAIN Act would prohibit the United States from conducting explosive testing of nuclear weapons or any other nuclear explosions. The bill, introduced by Representative Dina Titus in October 2025, amends existing nuclear weapons law to explicitly ban such testing and prevent federal funds from being used for this purpose starting in fiscal year 2026. The prohibition does not apply to "subcritical" nuclear tests—laboratory experiments on nuclear materials that cannot produce an actual explosion—which would remain permitted. This legislation affects the Department of Energy and the military branches responsible for nuclear weapons programs, as well as any contractors involved in nuclear weapons development and testing activities. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Armed Services and includes no specific funding authorization since it primarily restricts how existing defense funds can be spent rather than appropriating new money.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.