Tell your Senators and President Biden: Give Us a Defense Bill That Actually Protects Us!

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Call Script

My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.

I oppose the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as it currently stands and I ask you to also oppose it until it is substantially reworked. In the 21st century, we need to expand our concept of “defense” beyond just defending against armed human enemies, predator nations, and fanatic terrorists. A 21st century Defense Bill has to include defending us (and the world) from dangers such as climate catastrophes and global pandemics that are actually killing us, destroying our environment, and crippling our economy.

The NDAA provides large sums to protect military bases from the fire, flood, drought, storm, and rising sea-level consequences of global warming. Yet it does nothing to protect the American people by addressing the root causes of the climate emergency, such as reducing the Pentagon's use of fossil fuels, or redirecting defense research dollars towards alternative energy sources, or reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Nor does it include funds or programs for combating the Covid health emergency or preparing us for the next global pandemic.

I am disgusted and repelled by the blatant hypocrisy of Republicans and corporate Democrats. They wail about the BBBA’s fully-covered costs of investing in the American people and demand ever more cuts. Yet they eagerly vote for a bloated Defense Bill that is greater than the Pentagon even asked for, that is loaded with political pork, boondoggles, and corporate welfare, and that increases the national deficit they claim they are so concerned about.

Background

Back in June, we wrote a detailed open legislative letter to Congress asking them to treat the climate catastrophe as a national security threat and address it in the NDAA legislation. Forty-nine other organizations signed on, and in June 2021 it was sent to the members and staff of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. Our letter contained concrete suggestions for specific investments to address what the Pentagon and CIA have told Congress since the beginning of this century is a major national security threat.

For too long now, the NDAA has restricted its definition of “defense” to defending against armed human enemies. But the threats we face in the 21st century are far broader than predator nations and fanatic terrorists. We need a Defense Bill that protects us (and the world) from all the dangers that are actually killing us, destroying our environment, and crippling our economy, including climate change and global pandemics.

Republicans and corporate Democrats opposed and gutted the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (formerly the BIF), claiming we can’t afford to invest in American children, students, families, healthcare, housing, and climate defense. But without qualm or question they vote for an NDAA that’s more than twice as large as President Biden’s original $3.5 trillion proposal and is now more than four times larger than the stripped down and gutted BBBA passed by the House. They question and haggle over every nickel of domestic spending to benefit the American people, but without a moment’s hesitation they shower the military-industrial complex with trillions for business boondoggles, corporate welfare, and outright fraud on the part of defense contractors.

Voters are beginning to recognize that in a globalized world, national security relies on more than guns and soldiers alone. It requires an educated, healthy and productive workforce; a strong, vibrant economy; and a robust research and science infrastructure that recognizes climate change and global pandemics as national security threats. Even though some of its more important provisions were stripped out by corporate Democrats, the Build Back Better Act responds more effectively to that 21st century understanding of national defense than does the proposed NDAA.

Unfortunately, the Senate seems to be controlled by an alliance of Republicans and corporate Democrats who are primarily concerned with enriching and empowering their big donors.

References

Link to June ISF newsletter with short precis of the NDAA Open Letter that 49 groups signed: https://indivisiblesf.org/blog/2020/6/15/isfs-formal-letter-to-congress-ndaa-climate-change
Link to the Open Letter that 49 groups signed: http://indivisiblesf.org/s/NDAA_Climate.pdf
S. 2792, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, 10/21/21, Congressional Budget Office
On January 27, President Biden issued an Executive Order, “Putting the Climate Crisis at the Center of U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security,.” directing all agencies of the federal government to address the “national and economic security impacts of climate change“ and directs the Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and others to “consider the security implications of climate change,” in “developing the National Defense Strategy.”
The administration’s Interim National Security Strategic Guidance issued March 3rd concluded: Recent events show all too clearly that many of the biggest threats we face respect no borders or walls, and must be met with collective action. Pandemics and other biological risks, the escalating climate crisis, cyber and digital threats, international economic disruptions, protracted humanitarian crises, violent extremism and terrorism, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction all pose profound and, in some cases, existential dangers.
On April 9, the Director of National Intelligence's Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community declared: “Ecological degradation and a changing climate will continue to fuel disease outbreaks, threaten food and water security, and exacerbate political instability and humanitarian crises ... [including] direct, immediate impacts — for example, through more intense storms, flooding, and permafrost melting.”
Pandemics are a matter of national security — Congress should act like it
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/583194-pandemics-are-a-matter-of-national-security-congress-should-act, The Hill, 11/26/2021
https://www.contractormisconduct.org/ , Project on Government Oversight, Federal Contractor Misconduct Database
Senate GOP expected to block defense bill amid stalemate: https://thehill.com/policy/defense/583447-senate-gop-expected-to-block-defense-bill-amid-stalemate, The Hill, 11/29/2021
Even the Pentagon Spending Bill Can't Get a Pass From Republican Obstruction: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a38387975/defense-pending-bill-blocked-mitch-mcconnell-republicans/, Esquire, 11/30/2021

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