Report Back: Reliable Replacement Warhead Funding Zeroed in Omnibus
Your lobbying made a difference!
The administration’s plan for a new nuclear weapon, the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW), has been rejected by Congress. Special thanks are due to the hundreds of activists in North Dakota and New Mexico who played an extraordinary role in the defeat of this new weapon. Without your work to convince Senators Byron Dorgan and Pete Domenici, we would not have achieved this victory.
Your efforts were part of a broad mobilization by national organizations, local groups, and individual citizens across the country to defeat RRW. Working together, we have lobbied Congress, researched and analyzed government documents about RRW, published articles on the dangers of new nuclear weapons, ran advertisements in newspapers, contacted our members of Congress, and much more. Please pass along this message to others in your state that may have been involved in these efforts.
The specifics
After failing to pass most of the appropriations bills required to fund the federal government, this week the House of Representatives took up a massive “omnibus” spending bill that includes more than half of the federal government’s discretionary spending. Deep within the half-trillion omnibus bill, one line indicates zero money has been appropriated for RRW. The Senate is expected to follow suit and the president to sign the bill later this week.
That one budget line represents the culmination of hours upon hours of advocacy and a huge victory for the arms control community. In the harsh political climate of the past seven years, the arms control community and individual activists stopped the nuclear “bunker buster,” a new nuclear bomb plant, and now the Reliable Replacement Warhead.
Congratulations all, and happy holidays!
Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers)
