“A nation that neglects its sick, its hungry, its unhoused, and its children, while funneling all the resources to fix those problems into an unaccountable military apparatus is fundamentally insecure.”
Allen Hester, legislative representative for nuclear disarmament and Pentagon spending at FCNL.
This year is different.
We usually know what to expect. After the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual military policy bill, works through the powerful armed services committees in the House and the Senate, it faces a ‘vote-a-rama’ of amendments on everything from culture war issues to foreign military assistance.
When those are all resolved, it goes for a vote and, every year, passes with strong bipartisan majorities. This process has, for the most part, run like a well-oiled machine, with the Pentagon budget growing more massive with each passing year.
But this year, when the bill advanced from committees, the process stalled.
It only passed with a razor thin margin in the House (216-212), after failing to pass earlier. It was voted down in the Senate and, as of this writing, faces an uncertain road to passage.
As FCNL’s Allen Hester has put it, “for the first time in generations, the Pentagon spending machine is not running on autopilot.”
Why?
People power.
This NDAA would authorize the largest-ever Pentagon budget at $1.15 trillion. This comes while the Trump administration started an unpopular, illegal, and immoral war with Iran, and while families at home face an affordability crisis amid devastating cuts to healthcare, food assistance, and other vital programs.
When this war strained the resources of the U.S. military, they sounded the alarm and asked for even more cash on top of an already-ridiculous and bloated Pentagon budget.
The peace movement responded overwhelmingly, calling for an end to the war and for Congress to reject more funding for it.
Now, the voices of the people are being heard. Lawmakers are asking hard questions, asserting Congress’s war powers, and increasingly, rejecting a blank check for unauthorized, disastrous war.
Since the NDAA impacts so many issues of peace and justice, many of the lobbyists on our team work on it, coordinated by Allen Hester: from Jeffrey Jordan concerned with the ecological impact of Pentagon spending to Ursala Knudsen-Latta working on landmine and cluster munition policy.
Even those who don’t work on issues addressed in the bill find that the Pentagon budget takes resources that are needed in many other programs of the federal government. This is a skeleton key which unlocks so much of what is at the core of the world we seek.
Every year, we work to limit Pentagon spending and rein in U.S. militarism, and we have had some real wins. Just last year, the NDAA included an amendment that finally repealed one of the major authorizations of the never-ending post-9/11 wars: the 2002 Iraq War Authorization for Use of Military Force.
While we’ve helped build significant, bipartisan opposition to run-away Pentagon spending in Congress, relatively few lawmakers have been willing to challenge the topline Pentagon budget. Until now.
With the bill stalled this summer, FCNL’s network and our coalition worked tirelessly to help build on this momentum.
Congress went home for the August recess at a vital time. This is a month-long period when they are home listening to constituents.
We organized a powerful campaign to make sure that while they are home they heard from advocates for peace demanding: Not a Penny More for War!
The response amazed FCNL staff. Hundreds of people raised their hands and offered to be connected with Advocacy Teams, activated their communities, and let us know about lobby visits they had already planned with their members of Congress.
The “War is Not the Answer” message continues to inspire and stickers bearing that message are flying across the country. From organizing their retirement communities to using their experience as veterans, people of faith and conscience are refusing to let another potential forever war get out of control.
Regardless of the outcome of this bill, our hope lies in building our movement of advocates across the country and their relationships with members of Congress. That will build momentum and change the direction of our policy to build true peace and security.
Our guiding principles don’t change year after year. When we turn to FCNL’s statement of legislative policy, The World We Seek, we see:
“Militarization has permeated our society, skewing our national budget toward support for the military and its attendant industries and forcing our local economies increasingly to depend on them. Although national security is widely perceived to depend on military strength, more weapons do not provide more security.”(I.2.1)
This year shows that this message is starting to resonate. We know the broader public already agrees with it, but now this is starting to resound in Congress.
As FCNL’s general secretary, Bridget Moix, put it in an RNS column, “You get what you pay for. If you fund fear and force, you get devastation. But by investing in programs that make our communities and world safe, healthy and resilient, Congress can help turn the tide from escalating war to enduring peace.”
We have seen bigger and bigger military budgets proposed every year with minimal pushback. Now, Congress is listening and starting to put people over Pentagon.
