Washington, DC (July 27, 2018) – The Quaker lobby, Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) condemned the House of Representatives vote to fund a new nuclear missile warhead as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act.
Contact: Adlai Amor, Friends Committee on National Legislation, media@fcnl.org; 202-903-2536
“We already have too many nuclear bombs to blow up our planet. We do not need new ones,” said Diane Randall, Executive Secretary for FCNL. “As Quakers, we believe that peace is attainable by not building or developing new bombs. True security comes from a culture of peace, not with bombs.”
Hidden deep in the $716 billion defense policy bill was a Congressional green light and $65 million in funding requested by the Trump administration for a new, so-called “low-yield” submarine-launched nuclear warhead. However, this allegedly more usable, “low-yield” nuclear warhead is still several hundred times more destructive than any conventional weapon. It could kill tens of thousands of people in an instant.
The Trump administration sought this unprecedented submarine-launched long-range weapon to, in its words, “correct a perception” that the United States would shy from nuclear use.
National security leaders from both parties, like former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, and former Senator Richard Lugar, have labelled the proposal “dangerous, unjustified and redundant.”
“With this vote Congress is taking millions from American taxpayers so that President Trump can command more, and supposedly more usable, nuclear weapons,” said Anthony Wier, Legislative Secretary for Nuclear Disarmament and Pentagon Spending at FCNL. “This decision is as foolish as it is dangerous. This new warhead will do nothing that a thousand existing “low-yield” U.S. nuclear weapons don’t already do. This could tempt some into thinking that a nuclear war could somehow be managed.”
FCNL urges Congress to reverse the rush to deploy these dangerous new weapons and reject future Trump administration requests for still more nuclear weapons. Also, it urges Congress to shift its focus to reining in and eliminating all nuclear weapons.
For more information, please visit www.fcnl.org.
Founded in 1943 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), FCNL lobbies Congress and the administration for U.S. policies that advance peace, justice, and good government.