Dear Member of Congress,
Council for a Livable World urges you to vote ”no” on two pieces of legislation today: the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Bill conference report, H.R. 1735, and H.R. 3457 the “Justice for Iranian Terrorism Act”. We will be scoring both of these issues on our CLW Legislative Progress Report.
NDAA Conference Report (H.R. 1735): The addition of $38 billion to the Overseas Contingency Operations account – for a grand total of $89 billion for Fiscal Year 2016 — is fiscally irresponsible and an end-run around the budget caps. There is plenty of wasteful and ineffective spending by the Pentagon that can and should be cut. This “all of the above strategy” is no strategy at all. Government spending needs to be reprioritized.
The conference report also includes a number of other dreadful provisions. There will be a great expansion of wasteful and ineffective missile defense systems, a limitation on retiring out-of-date strategic nuclear bombers, a requirement that unnecessary intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM’s) be kept in “warm” status rather than retired, and restrictions on funding to dismantle retired nuclear weapons.
Click here to see our side-by-side comparison of House, Senate and Conference versions of the Defense Authorization.
“Justice for Iranian Terrorism Act” (H.R. 3457): This bill restricts the president from providing sanctions relief until Iran pays Americans court-ordered damages for Iranian-backed terror attacks. However, this legislation would not effectively help these victims, and is instead another attempt at undermining the international nuclear agreement. If implemented, this bill would isolate the United States from its international negotiating partners, and undercut the tough restrictions and monitoring of Iran’s nuclear program.
We urge a “no” vote on both pieces of legislation.
Angela Canterbury
Executive Director
Council for a Livable World
John Isaacs
Senior Fellow
Council for a Livable World
