ACTION ALERT: Congress Votes on War this Week
Win Without War
(July 9, 2019) — In the next few days, the House of Representatives will be voting on the NDAA — the massive three-quarters of a trillion dollars National Defense Authorization Act.
That means this week your representative could vote to stop funds for war in Iran, end weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and block Pentagon detention centers at the southern border.
But first our members of Congress have to hear from us.
For the past month, the House and Senate floors and committee rooms have been filled with debates on issues of war and peace — sometimes late into the night — as senators and representatives have demanded votes on their amendments to various must-pass bills.
And now, as the NDAA comes to the House floor this week, members of Congress are offering droves of progressive amendments — including hundreds that we can actually get behind: blocking a Trump/Bolton war with Iran AND the hateful trans servicemember ban from going into effect AND the deployment of ever-more troops to the southern border, to name just a few.
The fact that progressive amendments like these exist today is directly because of years of pushing from activists like you.
That’s why we have to weigh in with our representatives this week to make sure they fight for progressive amendments that block the Trump war cabinet’s business-as-usual violence-first foreign and domestic policy — from the southern US border to the Strait of Hormuz.
Can you write and demand your representative block Trump’s war cabinet this week and to support progressive amendments to the NDAA?
Activists like you have been making hundreds of calls and tweets, and delivering thousands of petition signatures to Congress to let our representatives know about our anti-war, pro-peace priorities. And it has become clear that our relentless pressure is working. But we aren’t done yet.Now let’s get a as-progressive-as-possible-NDAA to the finish line this week.
Thank you for working for peace,
Stephen and the Win Without War team
THE LETTER
Dear Representative,
H.R. 2500, the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020 includes a number of important provisions on war and peace.
However, we are hopeful that the final, House-passed bill is improved further by amending the bill to include the following progressive priorities:
-Blocking funds for an unconstitutional Trump/Bolton-started war with Iran and clarifying that no existing legal authorities cover a war with Iran;
-Suspending sales of air-to-ground munitions to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which both countries have used to kill thousands of men, women, and children in Yemen;
-Blocking the deployment of troops to the southern border for the purpose of immigration-related activities and the use of DOD facilities to detain immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers;
Thank you.
ACTION ALERT: Support NDAA Amendment 339 to End Military Aid to Saudi-UAE
Hassan El-Tayyab / Just Foreign Policy
More than 40 national advocacy groups signed the following coalition letter urging House Leadership see that Amendment 339 of the NDAA was adopted by the House and incorporated into the final bill sent to the President.
THE LETTER
Dear Chairmen Smith, Engel, and McGovern, Speaker Pelosi, and Majority Leader Hoyer:
(July 9, 2019) — Our coalition thanks you for your leadership in working to bring about an end to the war and humanitarian crisis affecting the people of Yemen, and for reasserting Congress’s sole constitutional authority over war and peace given the threat posed by President Donald Trump.
In light of your key roles in ensuring the passage of the historic bicameral measure earlier this year, directing the president to end unconstitutional US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, we ask that you do everything in your power to see that Amendment 339 to the National Defense Authorization Act, led by Representatives Ro Khanna and Adam Schiff, be adopted by the House of Representatives and incorporated into the final bill presented to President Trump.
After invoking the War Powers Resolution of 1973 for the first time in 45 years to signal the will of bipartisan, bicameral majorities in Congress that unconstitutional US participation in the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen be terminated, the House has an opportunity through Amendment 339 to wield Congress’s power of the purse to effectively override President Trump’s veto to S.J.Res.7 in a must-pass spending bill.
It would be a fitting conclusion to a legislative fight begun in September 2017 to ensure that the Khanna-Schiff provision prohibiting unauthorized US military support activities in Yemen—and other Yemen-related amendments that we also support, including Representative Malinowski’s Amendment 473 to put a one-year ban on bomb sales to the Saudi-UAE coalition—are included in the NDAA that ultimately reaches the President’s desk.
This also would showcase the ability of the new Democratic House majority to ratify its intent in statute, bring an end to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and rein in an intransigent President apparently beholden to the brutal Saudi dictatorship and dismissive of Congress, the Constitution, and the rule of law.
While the devastating US-Saudi war in Yemen and the humanitarian crisis it has produced remain as acute as ever—20.1 million Yemenis remain still food insecure—momentum is building for an end to the conflict due to your efforts.
The United Arab Emirates, a stalwart Saudi partner in the aerial bombing campaign and blockade of Yemen, is reportedly bringing its involvement to a close because “Emirati officials are increasingly concerned about the impact the war is having on the country’s influence and reputation in Washington,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
We ask that you harness the full force of your leadership roles to ensure that Amendment 339 be widely cosponsored, pass by a convincing margin on the floor of the House, and through aggressive negotiations with the Senate, be incorporated into the final National Defense Authorization Act signed into law by President Trump.
Sincerely,
Action Corps
Center on Conscience & War
Churches for Middle East Peace
CODEPINK
Common Defense
CREDO
Defending Rights & Dissent
Demand Progress
Engage Action
Environmentalists Against War
Foreign Policy for America
Franciscan Action Network
Freedom Forward
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Global Organization
Indivisible
Just Foreign Policy
Love Without Borders
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Million Hoodies Movement for Justice
MoveOn
New Internationalism Program, Institute for Policy Studies
New Jersey Peace Action
NYU for Yemen
Peace Action
Peace Action New York State
Popular Resistance
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Public Citizen
RootsAction.org
Students for Yemen
The United Methodist Church-General Board of Church and Society
The Yemen Peace Project
VoteVets
Win Without War
Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press
World BEYOND War
Yemen Freedom Council
Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation
Yemeni Alliance Committee Yemeni Student Association
