Keeping Our Eye on Congress

Mothers for Peace in San Luis Obispo welcomed the Nuclear-Free-Future Tour on July 21, 2019 with wonderful hospitality. From the Nuclear Free Future Facebook page.

By Ellen Thomas
Disarm/End Wars Issue Committee
December 10, 2019

Thanks to all who have helped to collect signatures on the petition to the Senate supporting the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)!

We’re making a final push to obtain 10,000 US signatures on the petition, which will be presented at the United Nations during the World Conference Against A & H Bombs in New York City April 24-26, 2020, the weekend before the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review begins, 50 years after the Treaty was signed in 1970. It is possible that the US and other parties to the NPT may withdraw from the treaty in 2020, which makes it all the more important to show support for the TPNW.

We have received 606 petitions from WILPF members all over the country, who have collected 5,515 signatures so far. In addition to these paper petitions, as of December 1, 2019, there are 2,601 signatures on the online petition, bringing the total to 8,115.  

This is the full text of the paper petition to the Senate:

I am committed to a world without nuclear weapons. I endorse the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted by 122 countries on July 7, 2017. As a citizen or resident of the United States, I call upon the President to sign and the Senate to give its consent to ratify this Treaty.
 
Further, I call upon the President, with the support of the Senate, to lead the way to negotiate the total elimination of nuclear weapons, and to redirect current and planned nuclear weapons spending to human and environmental needs.
 
Background - The use of nuclear weapons, either intentional or accidental, will cause untold suffering to millions of people and is a threat to the existence of humankind. The United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is a legally binding treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. The Treaty prohibits, among other things, the possession, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. [To see the Treaty: http://undocs.org/A/CONF.229/2017/8.] Print legibly please!

This is the full text of the online petition to the Senate:

I SUPPORT THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS BAN TREATY
I am committed to a world without nuclear weapons. I endorse the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted by 122 countries on July 7, 2017.

As a citizen or resident of the United States, I call upon the President to sign and the Senate to consent to ratify this Treaty.

Further, I call upon the President, with the support of the Senate, to lead the way to negotiate the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

Here is the QR code which leads to the online petition, included at the bottom of the paper petition for people who prefer to sign online.

In the House, More HR-2419 Co-sponsors Needed!

Representative Barbara Lee of Oakland, CA, has now signed on as co-sponsor to HR-2419, the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act," which Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington, DC, introduced into the House of Representatives for the fourteenth time in April, 2019. Other co-sponsors so far this session are Jim McGovern of Worcester, MA, and Ilhan Omar of Minneapolis, MN.  

Have you called your Representative yet to ask for co-sponsorship of HR-2419? HR-2419 promotes the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and supports moving the money from nuclear weapons and other arms industries to carbon-free, nuclear-free energy production, environmental restoration, health care, education, housing, and other human needs. The text of HR-2419 is at https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2419/text

If you have called and don't get results, please call again, and again, and set up a meeting face-to-face to explain why it is so important to support this legislation!

Here's the number to call: 202-224-3121

SUGGESTED SCRIPT #1 (For those who have not co-sponsored)
https://wilpfus.org/news/updates/action-alert-national-call-day-hr-2419-friday-november-1

Hi, my name is ____, calling from ____(city/town)____. I’m calling to urge Representative _____ to co-sponsor HR-2419,  the Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act, which supports the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and earmarks the billions of nuclear weapons dollars saved per year for converting the arms industries to produce carbon-free, nuclear-free energy systems, and to provide for other human needs such as health care, education, and environmental restoration.... This could provide funding for the Green New Deal!