Contrary to the “conventional wisdom” that nuclear weapons protect us, they actually ENDANGER us. Nuclear weapons THREATEN our national security and the security of everyone else on Planet Earth.
Just now I posted to my blog the GOOD NEWS that the House has refused to spend money for a reckless new nuclear weapon. Now THIS blog post reports on a second one that the House has refused to fund.
This information came in late June 2019 from a different source, the Arms Control Association (www.armscontrol.org), a long-standing and well-respected organization working to limit nuclear weapons:
House Votes to Defund Two New Nuclear Weapons Programs
Last week two key House Committees zeroed out the Trump administration’s budget request for two costly, unnecessary, and destabilizing new nuclear weapons programs—for a new “low-yield” nuclear warhead and for new missile systems that do not comply with the INF Treaty—and turned back efforts to restore funding on the House floor.
The Arms Control Association has been working for more than two years to defeat these proposals.
The Trump administration wants funding for deployment of the W76-2 warhead—a low-yield, nuclear war-fighting weapon—on U.S. submarine-launched long-range ballistic missiles. But key House Committees rejected the proposal and the House turned back an amendment to try to restore funding by a margin of 236-192.
As our disarmament and threat reduction policy director Kingston Reif argued in a recent op-ed, “adding a new low-yield warhead option to the U.S. arsenal is a solution in search of a problem.”
Key House Committees also rejected a Defense Department request for nearly $100 billion in fiscal year 2020 to develop three new intermediate-range missile systems. On June 18, House Democrats defeated an attempt by Republicans on the floor of the House to restore the funding by a vote of 225-203.
The debate on both these programs will soon be joined in the Senate with the final outcome to be determined in a House-Senate conference committee bill.
Stay tuned.
