Markey, Merkley Announce Joint Resolution of Disapproval on U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Deal, Setting Up Senate Vote

Washington (October 15, 2026) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Senator Jeff Merkley, co-chairs of the bicameral Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group today introduced a Joint Resolution of Disapproval (JRD) that gives the Senate an opportunity to debate and vote on the proposed U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal before it goes into effect. Under federal law, the agreement will go into effect after a 90-day congressional review period, unless Congress passes a JRD. The Markey-Merkley JRD sets up a vote for the Senate to consider the resolution after November 29. “The US-Saudi nuclear deal is about megatons, not megawatts. Trump should not be sharing nuclear bomb technology with a nation that US intelligence says may want nuclear weapons. Even worse, the deal fails to meet the nonproliferation Gold Standard, by allowing Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium, an essential step to producing a bomb, but not requiring the strongest international inspections. This deal is the starting gun for a Middle East nuclear arms race. Congress must reject it,” said Senator Markey. “Giving Saudi Arabia access to U.S. civilian nuclear energy technology without ironclad protections to make sure it doesn't provide a foundation for a nuclear bomb is unacceptable. It is essential that nations pursuing civilian energy programs agree to the ‘gold standard’ of restrictions on fuel reprocessing and enrichment and rigorous inspections to ensure that a nuclear energy program doesn’t become a covert nuclear weapons program,” said Senator Merkley. “We can’t sleepwalk into a decision this consequential. The law gives Congress the power to review and block a deal like this, and the Senate will now have the chance to fulfill its statutory responsibility before it’s too late.” If enacted, the Markey-Merkley JRD would block the Trump Administration’s U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear cooperation agreement, referred to as a “123 agreement.” The current agreement lacks two critical components necessary to prevent a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. The first is the “gold standard” for 123 agreements, which requires that a nation forego reprocessing of spent fuel and the enrichment of uranium to create nuclear fuel. Enrichment and reprocessing facilities create a significant infrastructure for the development of a nuclear weapons program. The second is a requirement that a nation sign on to the Additional Protocol, which turns the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from accountants into investigators that can make sure that a nation is not pursuing development of a nuclear weapon. If a 123 agreement with Saudi Arabia proceeds without the “gold standard” and the Additional Protocol, it raises significant risks. One risk is that Saudi Arabia will pursue a covert nuclear weapons program. A second risk is that the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which agreed to both the “gold standard” and the Additional Protocol, could opt out of those requirements because its 123 agreement allows the UAE to renegotiate if the U.S. gives another Middle East state a more favorable deal. A third is that Iran would undoubtedly reject any future restriction on its nuclear program that Saudi Arabia had not been held to. Taken together, these factors significantly raise the risk of nuclear weapon proliferation and the possibility of future conflicts in a nuclear-armed world. Previously, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the same leader that U.S. intelligence found approved the operation to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi , said that if Iran acquires a nuclear weapon, then Saudi Arabia will develop one as well. Despite public reporting indicating that President Trump would mandate Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel as part of the agreement , there is also no formal mention of this requirement in the deal. Full text of the Joint Resolution of Disapproval can be found by clicking here . On September 16 , Senators Markey and Merkley led a bipartisan group of Senators to press the Trump administration to declassify and publicly release the two side letters accompanying the proposed U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear cooperation agreement, referred to as a “123 agreement.” As a founder of the national Nuclear Freeze movement, Senator Markey has long been the Congressional leader on ending the proliferation of nuclear weapons. On August 26 , Senator Markey urged Congress to reject the Trump-Saudi nuclear deal after the Trump administration sent to Congress a nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia that would open the door to providing the Kingdom with the means to produce nuclear weapons materials but would not require the most stringent safeguards against the development of those weapons. On July 31 , Senators Markey and Merkley, along with Representatives John Garamendi (CA-08) and Don Beyer (VA-08), co-chairs of the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, published an opinion piece slamming Trump’s Saudi nuclear deal, citing then-Senator Marco Rubio’s understanding that handing nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia would be disastrous. On March 25 , Senators Markey and Merkley reintroduced the No Nuclear Weapons for Saudi Arabia Act , legislation that would mandate that any nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia can go into effect only if it receives the affirmative vote of Congress. On March 18 , Senator Markey led his colleagues in writing to Secretary Rubio demanding the Trump administration must meet the “gold standard” of nuclear non-proliferation protections by denying Saudi Arabia the means to produce weapons-grade uranium and plutonium, materials that could be used in a nuclear bomb. In November 2025 , Senator Markey and Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20) wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, urging the Trump administration to include the strongest possible “gold standard” nonproliferation measures in any nuclear cooperation agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to foreclose any pathway to a nuclear weapon. In November 2024 , Senator Markey wrote to the Biden administration seeking answers about any agreement that would normalize relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Israel in exchange for civil nuclear energy cooperation and a U.S. defense commitment to the Kingdom. As far back as 2017, Senator Markey pressed the first Trump administration on the status of all current and ongoing discussions between the United States and other countries, including Saudi Arabia, on 123 agreements after it was reported that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was peddling a plan to build nuclear reactors throughout the Middle East. ###