Call PA Senators to Support Amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act

From Peace Action (http://www.peace-action.org/):

The Senate is debating their version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) right now.

The NDAA is a massive, $700 billion spending bill that authorizes an excessive and wasteful amount of money on the Pentagon. It is also seen by most in Congress as a “must pass” bill. That status, however, gives us many opportunities to have positive amendments attached to it, which provide real progress on issues that may otherwise never receive a vote.

That’s why we’re asking you to call your Senators today to urge them to support important amendments like these that may come up for a vote at any moment:

• One of the most important amendments comes from Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) to repeal the 2001 and 2002 authorizations intended for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. These authorizations have been abused for the past 16 years, and used to justify nearly 40 military operations in not just Afghanistan and Iraq, but also Syria, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. This amendment would finally force Congress back to doing their constitutional responsibility to debate and authorize future wars.
• Senators Todd Young (R-IN) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) offered an amendment to end U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia while it’s engaged in a bombing campaign of Yemen. The Saudi-led military coalition’s airstrikes have killed thousands of innocent civilians in Yemen by indiscriminately bombing schools, hospitals and markets. The U.S. should be doing everything it can to end the civil war there, rather than effectively giving the green-light to allow the continued killing of civilians without fear of reprisal.
• On nuclear weapons, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) has offered several amendments, such as his Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons legislation that would bar the president from launching a first-strike nuclear attack without Congressional authorization. Massachusettes’s other Senator Elizabeth Warren has introduced an amendment that would block spending for nuclear weapons programs not permitted under the INF Treaty, which successfully eliminated nearly 3,000 nuclear weapons.

Here’s what you can do:

1) Call the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121 (see NOTE below)

2) Ask for one of your Senators, and when connected say:

3) My name is ________ and I am a constituent living at__________*. I want Senator ________ to support amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act that would reduce wasteful Pentagon spending on nuclear weapons, end U.S. support for the war in Yemen, and reclaim your constitutional authority to debate and vote on wars through Senator Rand Paul’s amendment to end the 2001 and 2002 Authorization For the Use of Military Force. I would like a written response as to why the Senator does or does not support these steps I feel are important.
(*Note some offices won’t count callers that do not provide address information)

4) Redial the switchboard, ask for your other Senator and repeat.

NOTE: Alternatively, you can call each office directly—find contact information:

• Senator Robert Casey: http://casey.senate.gov
• Senator Pat Toomey: http://toomey.senate.gov

Thanks for taking this important action today!