2020 Action

Project 2025 Includes Dangerous Nuclear Weapons Policies

SEPTEMBER: Written by the Heritage Foundation, with staffers and supporters of former President Trump, Project 2025 calls for nuclear weapons to become a dramatically larger part of our national defense posture. The writers state that more nuclear weapons would guarantee our freedom and prosperity, unlike President Reagan, who acknowledged this as a myth when he said that nuclear weapons offered only a “war that couldn’t be won and must never be fought.”

Project 2025 calls for the elimination of all nuclear treaties and for the US to restart nuclear testing in Nevada. It also calls for us to expand and modernize our nuclear arsenal and increase funding for more Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles armed with multiple warheads, instead of reducing the number of deployed weapons. Project 2025 calls for us to position more nuclear weapons in Europe and Asia and to focus our deterrence on Russia and China.

Project 2025 states that nuclear weapons should be prioritized over other security programs, and that the National Nuclear Security Administration should transition to a wartime footing. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists warns that this dramatic build up could increase the global nuclear arms race.

ACTION: Let others know of these alarmingly dangerous policies in Project 2025. Write a letter to the editor of your local or regional newspaper, and to your Representatives and Senators.

CONTACT:

• Newspaper Editor: You can submit a letter-to-the-editor electronically from your newspaper’s website. Cut and paste from text above.

• Your Representative and Senators
  •  Web: Find their names and links to their websites at senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
  • Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
  • Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510
    or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

The Threat Posed by Nuclear Weapons is Expanding. What can we do to Counteract it?

June - The world is slipping deeper into the nuclear weapons death spiral. Must we wait for nuclear catastrophe before we decide that nuclear weapons are the ultimate threat to human life? The spread of these weapons, and their modernization, is only making things worse. 

Two House bills H. Res. 77 and H. R. 3472 address these mortal dangers. The first, H.R. 77, opposes the vast costs of modernization planned for the whole U.S. nuclear arsenal. The second, H.R. 3472, calls for the reduction of some programs that were pushed by Pres. Trump but found to be unnecessary by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). We have enough nuclear weapons subs, and enough plutonium pits (triggering devices for H-bombs) for the next 60 years.

ACTION: Urge your representative to co-sponsor H. Res. 77 and H. R. 3472. Now, 54 years after the U.S. committed to work to eliminate nuclear weapons, are we not finally obligated to take these steps?  It's time to climb back out of the nuclear death spiral of human extinction and make life safer for our kids and grandkids.

CONTACT: Your Representative in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Representative (first & last name)
  S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

U.S. Nuclear Policy in the Current Middle East

November 2023 - Ever since the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), nonproliferation has been the central pillar of U.S. nuclear policy. So it is extremely disturbing that the Biden administration is now negotiating a dangerous three-way deal with Israel and Saudi Arabia. The deal would: 

a) establish diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia,
b) take some unspecified action toward a 2-state solution for the Palestinians, and
c) give the Saudis a U.S.-run uranium enrichment operation.

This third item is extremely dangerous. Knowing the record of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudis could take over the enrichment operation and then be able to manufacture weapons-grade uranium. Saudi Arabia has already bought Chinese-made nuclear-capable missiles.

ACTION: Contact President Biden

Urge him not to set up a uranium-enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia. It's too risky and Saudi Arabia is an ideal location for solar energy.

In addition, tell the President that the US should send Israel only defensive military equipment. Also, ask him to immediately urge Israel to lift the deadly embargo on food, water, and fuel to the 2 million innocent civilians in Gaza, to forestall an even greater humanitarian catastrophe.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Say ‘NO’ to Taxpayers Holding the Bag for Nuclear Disasters

September - The Price-Anderson Act was enacted in 1957. It kickstarted the nuclear power industry and has limited the liability that nuclear power companies would pay in a disaster to about $13 billion. The Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters are costing in the hundreds of billions of US dollars. Nineteen of the 93 nuclear reactors in the US are just like the ones that exploded at Fukushima.

Current Senate Bill S.1111 extends Price-Anderson for 20 more years, until 2045! It has been incorporated into the Senate version of the proposed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Nuclear weapons contractors would be exempt from liability even if they are found negligent! Nuclear power producers’ liability would be limited even though accidents could cost hundreds of billions. US taxpayers will be on the hook for most of the costs. We need to make the nuclear power and weapons industries pay for their own insurance and catastrophes!

Other bad parts of S.1111 would allow foreign entities to own US nuclear power reactors and encourage the spread of nuclear materials and technology to other countries accelerating nuclear proliferation. Every reactor makes enough plutonium yearly for multiple nuclear weapons.

ACTION:  Tell your Senators and Representatives NOT TO extend the Price-Anderson Act and to REMOVE S.1111 from the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA S.2226). This will help to prevent the international spread of nuclear power and weapons and keep foreign powers from owning nuclear reactors in the US. It will also keep US citizens from paying most of the costs of future nuclear accidents.

CONTACT: Your Representatives & Senators in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510
  or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Thanks to the Nuclear Research Information Service (NIRS) for their assistance with this card.

Support US Arms Control Outreach to China and Iran

July 2023 - The news from Washington about arms control isn't always bad. Recently, Secretary of State Blinken and President Biden have renewed efforts to bring China into arms control discussions. Proposals include advance notification of missile tests, improved crisis communication channels, and committing not to hand over launch authority to an A.I. system but to have a human make the ultimate decision about launching nuclear weapons. Although these proposals are modest, they are absolutely in the right direction and might lead to more substantive agreements in the future. 

The U.S. is also pursuing behind-the-scenes talks with Iran to create a “political cease-fire”. In such an agreement Iran would agree to limit uranium enrichment to 60% purity, halt lethal attacks on American contractors by proxies in the region, and expand cooperation with international nuclear inspectors. In exchange, Iran would receive assurances that the US would not tighten economic sanctions, seize foreign oil-tankers, or seek new punitive resolutions at the UN. These agreements are also modest but might create time and space for future discussions of a renewed nuclear deal. 

ACTION:

The Biden administration may be concerned about the political risks of pursuing these efforts during a presidential campaign. They need to hear from the American people that there is support for such actions. Contact the President and Secretary Blinken to indicate that you support their outreach to China and Iran concerning arms control.

CONTACT:

Secretary of State Blinken:
Web:  https://register.state.gov/contactus/contactusform
Tel: 202 512-1800 (from 8 am to 4:30 pm EST)

President Biden: Web: 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
Mail:  The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

How Well Has Delaying Nuclear Diplomacy Served Us?

May 2023 - In 1949, in its first action, the United Nations voted in favor of the elimination of nuclear weapons. Being the only nuclear state, the US refused. Then the Soviets managed to get nuclear weapons, and soon after, also the UK, France, and China, to a total of over 60,000 warheads. The threat of the proliferation of these weapons around the world produced the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970, essentially a grand bargain: those 5 nuclear states committed to negotiate to eliminate their nuclear weapons, while non-nuclear states committed to forgo nuclear weapons. 

The intervening 53 years have yet to see the first negotiation meeting. Now Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea also have them, Iran and Saudi Arabia are making moves in that direction, and the threat of terrorists and criminal gangs getting them is even more terrifying. Clearly, delaying negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons has not made such negotiations easier. On the contrary, it has made them harder at every step along the way. We need to negotiate nuclear weapons elimination while we still can. The alternative looks bleak indeed. Fortunately, there is a House bill, H. Res. 77, that urges preparatory steps for such negotiations to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

ACTION:

Urge your Representative in Washington to co-sponsor this very critical bill, H. Res.77, to address this terrifying threat. If your Representative is opposed to the bill, ask what his or her plan is to protect and save you, your family, and the world. A superpower nuclear exchange would kill the "lucky" ones immediately, and the rest by starvation due to nuclear winter.

CONTACT: Your Representatives

• Web: Find his/her name and link to their website at house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on their website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Representative (first & last name) S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Biden's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) Is Disappointing

March - The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is a legislatively-mandated review undertaken by each President that establishes U.S. nuclear policy, strategy, capabilities and force posture for the next five to ten years. In October 2022, President Biden made public the unclassified version of his NPR. Before becoming President, Joe Biden was a leader in nuclear arms control, but now some of his actions and policies are going in the opposite direction. Consider these quotes:

1. In 2020 Biden wrote: "... the sole purpose of the U.S. nuclear arsenal should be deterring and, if necessary, retaliating against a nuclear attack." By contrast, Biden's NPR states, “We conducted a thorough review . . . including both No First Use and Sole Purpose policies and concluded that they would lead to “unacceptable risk in light of ... non-nuclear capabilities.” His NPR states that the US could respond with nuclear weapons even to a non-nuclear attack.
2. Former President Trump had championed the W76-2 as a small, "more usable", nuclear warhead.  In contrast, Joe Biden declared that "I don't think there's any such thing as an ability to easily use a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon." Sadly, shortly after that remark, Biden’s NPR supported that very “more usable” W76-2 nuclear weapon. 

On the positive side, Biden's NPR states that the U.S. "will seek opportunities to pursue practical steps to advance the goals of... reduced reliance on nuclear weapons, and, ultimately, a world without nuclear weapons.” We need to encourage him to actually create these opportunities.

ACTION: Contact President Biden. Use the information above to express your surprise and dismay that his NPR is, in several important ways, contrary to his earlier statements. Also, urge him to host a 2023 conference of the nuclear states to prepare the ground for a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide. This may not be easy, but it will be harder still once Iran and Saudi Arabia join the nuclear club.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Nuclear Weapons Are Not the Answer

August 2022 - The devastating war in Ukraine is a constant reminder of how destructive conventional weapons are to human lives and psyches, animals, cities, and the environment. It is important to recognize that the existence of nuclear weapons in Russia but not in Ukraine is one of the reasons this war was made possible and is ongoing. On Feb. 27, Russian President Putin announced that his country’s nuclear forces had been placed on “high alert,” meaning, 900 of their nuclear weapons could be launched within 15 minutes. This has enabled Russia to wage conventional war while threatening escalation to a nuclear war. It's clear: nuclear weapons do not “keep the peace.”

Analysts estimate that the world’s nine nuclear states—China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the UK and the US—have around 13,000 nuclear warheads in total. Russia says it has 6,257 nuclear warheads, while the United States admits to having 5,550.

Our priority as a world community must be to eliminate the catastrophic risk posed by nuclear weapons. Yet, the US defense industry and their allies in Congress are using the Ukraine war to call for increased defense funding and new spending on tactical nuclear weapons—nuclear weapons that actually increase the risk of nuclear use.

ACTION: Contact your members of Congress: Ask them to bring us back from the nuclear brink and get the US and all countries on the path to abolishing nuclear weapons. Include the facts above and ask them to do all they can to decrease spending on nuclear weapons and increase funding for other pressing needs that would directly and immediately improve human security such as investments in clean energy technology and infrastructure that will accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and toward climate stabilization, and work for the US to join the 86 nations that have signed the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

CONTACT: Your Representative and Senators in Congress

• Web: Find your Congress persons’ names and links to their websites at www.senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.20510, or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please forward this email on to your contacts and/or write a letter-to-the-editor

Think Ahead to Do Your Part in Getting to Global Zero

July 2022 - Clearly, federal, state, and local governments, along with industry have a huge job to do to increase their use of fossil-free electricity and to get themselves off all fossil fuels by 2050. 

But 2050 is coming to us regular folks also, and how do we get ourselves to stop buying gasoline and heating fuel? Switch to electric cars and electric heat pumps to heat our houses. Both cost more initially to buy, but both now have governmental financial subsidies, and both are much cheaper to use over their lifetimes.

The key is to plan ahead now. Furnaces often fail in the winter, almost never in the summer!  So the idea is to get several plans and financial bids ahead of time, so when your furnace fails, you're ready to install your planned heat pump. If you don't do your change-over at that time, you'll want or need to do it at some future time before 2050, when your furnace may still have "years of good life" left in it.

It's similar with your car. As it ages, be aware of electric car options, so when your car needs to be replaced, you'll be ready to buy an electric one. Start now on your way to Global Zero. 

ACTION:

Make plans now about your home heating system. It's critical to be able to move quickly if your furnace dies in deepest January with little time to make a fossil-free decision. The idea is to explore and decide now, ahead of time, before you'd be rushed into another fossil-fueled furnace, which would inevitably need to be replaced by a heat pump before 2050. 

Steps:

1.   Do a home free energy audit. Contact your municipality for information.
2.   Then do an energy and insulation upgrade. Government subsidies are available.
3.   Get 2-3 installation designs along with financial bids and testimonials from prior customers. 
4.   Be ready to make the switch to a heat pump and an electric car when needed.

Please forward this email to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed action.

NY Times: Aid Groups Fear Starvation Death of 1 Million Afghan Children This Winter

January 2022 - We are sending you the January 2022 Action early because the need is so urgent. The US has been deeply engaged in and supportive of Afghanistan for over 20 years. Since our withdrawal in August, the billions of dollars annually in US aid to Afghanistan has stopped dead. We also bear a heavy moral responsibility for the sanctions we have imposed cutting it off from most other sources of aid. This has basically collapsed the Afghan economy and caused a food scarcity of crisis proportions. The UN World Food Program and other aid groups have been long established in Afghanistan and can deliver food directly to the people who need it most. But they don't have nearly the resources that are desperately and immediately needed to keep children from starvation.

TAKE ACTION:

1. Contact Pres. Biden who can take Executive action to help avoid a mass catastrophe in Afghanistan. A brief message is best. Below is a letter of the sort you might send to him.
2. If you can, we encourage you to make a personal donation to the UN World Food Program which has worked in Afghanistan since 1963. This would be most helpful because it can be used immediately. They say that a $75 donation feeds a family of 5 for a month. This is only a small part of what is needed, but for that family, for that month, it means survival. Click on  

 https://www.wfpusa.org/news-release/half-of-afghanistans-population-face-acute-hunger/

Then click on the red DONATE sign at the top. Thank you so much.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

 

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

 

Sample message to President Biden (you can leave this on the White House website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

President Joseph R. Biden

The White House

Washington DC 

Dear Mr. President,

I am in anguish about the 1 million children that could actually starve to death in Afghanistan this winter (NY Times:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/world/asia/afghanistan-starvation-crisis.html). That is horrific. They are surely innocent by any measure. 

Please do your utmost to prevent this catastrophe: transfer funds to the UN World Food Program and other aid agencies, lift some sanctions on the Taliban, and send emergency food supplies to Afghanistan. We cannot sit by, while we, by sanctioning the Taliban, prevent Afghan children from getting food to survive.

Mr. President, you are an empathic person. I know you are extremely busy, but please act to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe that is surely coming if nothing is done. 

Thank you for your help in this matter. 

Sincerely yours,

(your name and address)