48 Groups to Congress: Not A Single Dollar More to the Pentagon

Today, a letter signed by 48 advocacy, faith, grassroots, and government oversight groups was sent to congressional leadership urging Congress not to include any additional funding for the Pentagon in the forthcoming infrastructure or relief plans.

Requests for additional Department of Defense spending have cropped up outside of the traditional budget authorization process, with legislators on both sides of the aisle attempting to tuck pet projects into the large-scale spending package. The groups point out that these requests fall outside of the President's existing request of $753 billion for FY22, an increase from last year's Trump administration levels.

"We are recovering from a year of record unemployment and housing insecurity, reeling from the loss of loved ones, staggering under the weight of multiplying medical and student loan debt, confronting systemic racism and violent white nationalism, and combating the ongoing climate crisis," they write.

"Militarized spending has not solved these problems, and in many ways has made them worse... Every additional dollar allocated to the Pentagon is another dollar that is not being used to address these urgent challenges, and will not provide the relief our communities desperately need."

The signatories join 24 progressive lawmakers, led by U.S. Representatives Barbara Lee, Mark Pocan, and Cori Bush, who made similar demands last week.

Read the full text of the letter here and quotes from supporting organizations here.