Contact:
Carley Towne | CODEPINK Co-Director | [email protected]| (909)-809-8104
August 10, 2021- CODEPINK, a women-led peace organization, applauds the failure of an amendment to the Senate budget resolution to boost military spending by $50 billion and calls on Congress to reallocate Pentagon spending to address the climate crisis.
In a 46-53 vote, Senators rejected an amendment to provide the Pentagon with $50 billion in excess funding. The amendment’s failure comes after CODEPINK mobilized hundreds of members to call their Senators to reject any proposal for additional funding for the Pentagon budget.
“This vote should be viewed as a test of how committed our representatives are to actually addressing the climate crisis. The IPCC report released earlier this week made clear that if we’re going to have any chance at addressing the climate crisis, we need to slash funding for the Pentagon which is the largest institutional producer of greenhouse gases in the world says Carley Towne, CODEPINK co-director. “Today, 46 Senators prioritized increasing the profits of military contractors over the future of our planet.”
While we applaud the victory of excluding excess Pentagon spending in the Senate budget resolution, we are still appalled by the record-high $756 billion 2022 Pentagon Budget proposal from the Biden Administration. This is completely out of step with the priorities of the majority of Americans. A poll found that the majority of Americans support decreasing defense spending to increase funding for domestic priorities.
In light of the Biden Administration’s announcement that the United States will be withdrawing troops from Afghanistan by September 2021, the Pentagon budget should reflect at least a corresponding $50 billion reduction and not a transfer of our military spending focus to the Asia-Pacific.
At the end of the day, excluding excess Pentagon funding in the Senate budget resolution is not enough. As Congress considers the National Defense Authorization Act, we call on our representatives to reduce the Pentagon budget by at least 10% and instead invest in what will truly make us safe: universal healthcare, good jobs, and addressing the climate crisis.
Act Now:
It’s now more important than ever to contact your representatives and send them the CODEPINK guide to Pentagon budget cuts to demand that they show their support to reduce the Pentagon budget and invest in human needs!
