March, 16 2021, 12:00am EDT
Lee, Pocan & Auchincloss Lead 50 Members Urging Biden to Cut Defense Budget
Today, co-chairs of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA), Mark Pocan (D-WI) as well as Marine veteran Representative Jake Auchincloss (D-MA9), led a letter of 50 colleagues to President Biden urging him to decrease the Pentagon's budget in his forthcoming proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2022. Under Donald Trump, the defense budget ballooned to $740 billion--a more than 20% increase during his tenure.
WASHINGTON
Today, co-chairs of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA), Mark Pocan (D-WI) as well as Marine veteran Representative Jake Auchincloss (D-MA9), led a letter of 50 colleagues to President Biden urging him to decrease the Pentagon's budget in his forthcoming proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2022. Under Donald Trump, the defense budget ballooned to $740 billion--a more than 20% increase during his tenure. As over 535,000 Americans have lost their lives to COVID-19, now is the time to show the American people that the Biden-Harris administration prioritizes their health, housing, education, and jobs over billions more towards forever wars abroad.
"As we face a global pandemic and unprecedented economic crisis, the needs of American families far outweigh the need to continue feeding our bloated military defense budget," said Rep. Lee. "Analysis from experts across the political spectrum show that we can make significant cuts to our defense budget without compromising our national security or reducing the support, pay or benefits provided to our men and women in uniform and their families. This issue has broad based support from faith groups, conservatives and progressives alike. As Co-chairs of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, we are calling on the President to rebalance our priorities to build a safer, peaceful, and more prosperous world, at home and abroad."
"We cannot build back better if the Pentagon's budget remains just as large as it was under Donald Trump," said Rep. Pocan. "This crisis has proven that American national security should not be defined by the number of nuclear weapons collecting dust in storage, but by healthcare security, job security, housing security--the security of working families surviving with a roof over their heads, food on the table and money in the bank. We have a duty to invest in the American people more than we invest in defense contractor profits and Pentagon slush funds."
"As the United States pivots away from the failed forever wars, our generation needs to lay down a marker for the Pentagon" said Rep. Auchincloss. "We can defend America and protect the global commons without the Trump increases to the budget. You don't have to be a veteran to know that the defense budget is out of control when you have a trillion-dollar fighter jet that can't dogfight."
Representatives Lee and Pocan previously led the National Defense Authorization Act amendment to cut the defense budget in the 116thCongress.
Representatives Nanette Diaz Barragan (D-CA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Cori Bush (D-MO), Judy Chu (D-CA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Danny K. Davis (D-IL), Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA), Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Jesus G. "Chuy" Garcia (D-IL), Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL), Jahana Hayes (D-CT), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. (D-GA), Mondaire Jones (D-NY), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Daniel T. Kildee (D-MI), Andy Levin (D-MI), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), James P. McGovern (D-MA), Grace Meng (D-NY), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Marie Newman (D-IL), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Katie Porter (D-CA), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Bobby L. Rush (D-IL), John P. Sarbanes (D-MD), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Mark Takano (D-CA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Lori Trahan (D-MA), Nydia M. Velazquez (D-NY), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), and Peter Welch (D-VT) also signed onto the letter.
See the full letter below and here.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a Democrat, represents the 13th District in California.
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The United Nations' top humanitarian affairs officials on Friday called for an immediate deescalation of hostilities in Sudan, where rival factions in the military government have been fighting for a year and where an attack on the city of El Fasher is reportedly imminent.
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The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday that the security situation in North Darfur has left more than a dozen aid trucks with relief supplies for 122,000 people stranded in neighboring Northern state, unable to proceed into the only capital city in Darfur that is not controlled by RSF.
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Since April 14, when RSF began to push into El Fasher, at least 43 people—including women and children—have been killed due to fighting between the SAF and RSF.
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Omar was among several lawmakers who wrote to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this week, urging them to "deliver urgently-needed humanitarian assistance" and to help end the hostilities.
Sudanese-Australian writer Yassmin Abdel-Magied urged Americans on Friday to pressure lawmakers and the White House to take more action.
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Just before voting began in Chattanooga, GOP Govs. Kay Ivey of Alabama, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Tate Reeves of Mississippi, Henry McMaster of South Carolina, Bill Lee of Tennessee, and Greg Abbott of Texas claimed that "unionization would certainly put our states' jobs in jeopardy" and the UAW is "making big promises to our constituents that they can't deliver on."
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The Associated Pressnoted that "Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed similar legislation on Monday" and that Tennessee already has one on the books.
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As the newspaper detailed:
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Last month, the Biden administration
said that Israel's use of U.S.-supplied weapons complies with international law, an assessment lambasted by many observers including Palestinian American political analyst Yousef Munayyer, who called it "absolutely scandalous."
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