| Nuclear Disarmament Action Alert & Resources |
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| Written by Administrator | |||
| Friday, 05 September 2003 00:00 | |||
 We defeated this legislation in the House of Representatives last spring, and with enough popular pressure, we can prevail in the Senate. We need your help and the help of your friends and family who live in the states of swing vote Senators. Some time this month, quite possibly next week, the Senate will be voting on a authorization (funding) bill that could open the way for research, development, and production of new nuclear weapons and to prepare the way for the resumption of nuclear weapons tests. We defeated this legislation in the House of Representatives last spring, and with enough popular pressure, we can prevail in the Senate. We need your help and the help of your friends and family who live in the states of swing vote Senators. Following is an action alert and fact sheet, with key web links, prepared by the newly created Nuclear Disarmament Working Group of United for Peace and Justice, the national coalition. Please send a message to your senator, neighbors, friends and relatives today. Joseph Gerson American Friends Service Committee www.afsc.org/ September 2003 United for Peace and Justice Nuclear Disarmament/Redefining Security Working Group At its June 2003 national meeting in Chicago, United for Peace and Justice adopted nuclear disarmament as an action priority and called for a campaign to build "visible public support in the U.S. for sweeping measures to eliminate nuclear weapons in the U.S. as well as worldwide." That is the mission of the Nuclear Disarmament/Redefining Security Working Group. As part of the campaign, we are writing you now to provide information about Bush administration programs for new nuclear weapons and to ask you to join us in urging the Senate to block funding for those programs in the upcoming vote. The vote may be as early as the second week of September. ALERT AND RESOURCES UPCOMING SENATE VOTE ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS This month, during the second week or later, the Senate will consider amendments to the Fiscal Year 2004 energy and water appropriations bill that would cut back on aggressive plans for new nuclear weapons and modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Likely to be offered by Senator Feinstein and other senators, the amendments would track the House version of the bill, perhaps in weaker form regarding test readiness and pit production. Unlike the Senate appropriations committee, the House among other things modified the administration's request to: * cut spending on the "Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator" from $15 Million (M) to $5M * eliminate $6M for "teams" of scientists to work on "advanced concepts" for design of nuclear weapons * eliminate $25M for "enhanced test readiness" to reduce the time for preparation of a full-scale nuclear test explosion from 24-36 to 18 months * cut spending on planning and environmental review for the "Modern Pit Production Facility" from $25M to $11M The upcoming vote is an opportunity to let the Senate know that modernizing the nuclear arsenal while the United States demands nuclear disarmament by other nations is hypocritical, dangerous, and unsustainable. The Bush administration insists that North Korea, Iran, and other countries refrain from acquiring nuclear arms and submit to inspections in accordance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). But the NPT also requires the United States and other nuclear-armed countries to engage in a process of transparent and irreversible reduction and elimination of their own arsenals. Add your comment
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