WAND urges necessary cuts to Pentagon budget through FY22 NDAA
WAND joins nearly 50 organizations in urging Members of Congress to vote in favor of amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY2022 that would reduce the astronomical Pentagon budget. Led by Representatives Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan, these amendments propose to, respectively, “overturn the nearly $25 billion increase that the House Armed Services Committee added to the Pentagon topline during markup of the NDAA,” and reduce the topline of the Pentagon budget by 10 percent from the authorized level.
From the letter: “Pouring billions more into the military, far beyond even the level requested by President Biden, sends exactly the wrong message at this moment in history. We are struggling to end a deadly pandemic, deal with the looming climate crisis, confront racial injustice, and secure badly-needed relief for working people all over the country. These are problems that no amount of military spending could ever solve. Yet we are consistently told that resources are finite and asked how we will pay for efforts to address these challenges even as there always appears to be plenty of money to buy new and unnecessary weapons and fill the pockets of weapons contractors.
This proposed level of Pentagon spending in the FY 2022 NDAA does not represent our values and priorities. We are looking to our elected leaders to reverse course and stem the tide of exorbitant military spending.”
Dear Members of Congress,
The undersigned 49 grassroots, climate justice, peace, domestic human needs, immigrant rights, national security and faith organizations unite in opposition to the current sky-high Pentagon budget and urge you to vote in favor of two amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022 that would reduce it.
Amendment 41, led by Representative Barbara Lee, would overturn the nearly $25 billion increase that the House Armed Services Committee added to the Pentagon topline during markup of the NDAA. Amendment 40, led by Representative Mark Pocan, would go further by reducing the topline by 10 percent from the authorized level, exempting military personnel and the Defense Health Program.
Pouring billions more into the military, far beyond even the level requested by President Biden, sends exactly the wrong message at this moment in history. We are struggling to end a deadly pandemic, deal with the looming climate crisis, confront racial injustice, and secure badly-needed relief for working people all over the country. These are problems that no amount of military spending could ever solve. Yet we are consistently told that resources are finite and asked how we will pay for efforts to address these challenges even as there always appears to be plenty of money to buy new and unnecessary weapons and fill the pockets of weapons contractors.
This proposed level of Pentagon spending in the FY 2022 NDAA does not represent our values and priorities. We are looking to our elected leaders to reverse course and stem the tide of exorbitant military spending. We urge you to vote YES on Amendments 40 and 41 to the NDAA.