Senate Ignores Our Greatest National Security Threat

Earlier this month, President Biden issued his annual National Security Strategy paper, which forthrightly stated:

"The climate crisis is the existential challenge of our time. A warming planet endangers Americans and people around the world—risking food and water supplies, public health, and infrastructure and our national security. Without immediate global action to reduce emissions, scientists tell us we will soon exceed 1.5 degrees of warming, locking in further extreme heat and weather, rising sea levels, and catastrophic biodiversity loss."

Almost 60% of all discretionary federal spending is devoted to national security and defense. Those expenditures, and the policies they implement, are controlled by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Senate Armed Services Committee just sent its version of the 2023 NDAA to the Senate floor for adoption with NO provisions addressing the national security threat of global warming and the multiple climate crises that we face. In 948 pages, the word "warming" does not appear even once, and the word "climate" only appears in the context of increased pay for military personnel ordered to serve in hazardous climates.

It is long past time for a significant portion of our defense budget to be redirected towards protecting us from the climate emergency that is already killing Americans, destroying homes and businesses, and crippling our economy right now. For example, we could reduce Pentagon greenhouse gas emissions and shift research funds from new generations of nuclear weapons and defense boondoggles to addressing the causes of global warming.

The Senate is likely to debate NDAA23 this week or next, and a coalition of Republicans and conservative corporate Democrats is almost certainly going to pass it over the objections of progressives. Since our priority between now and November 8 has to be preventing Republican victories in the midterms, ISF is not currently providing our members with a script asking Senators Feinstein and Padilla to oppose the NDAA draft as it currently stands. However, if you have the time, please consider calling or sending them a message in your own words that opposes any NDAA that fails to address global warming and the climate emergencies as grave matters of national security.

References

National Security Strategy -- 2022, President Biden. (PDF)

S.4543 - James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act

Summary: Senate NDAA23, SASC (PDF)

Full Text: Senate NDAA23, SASC (PDF)