Take Action: Tuesday Hearing on Presidential Nuclear Authority

November 12, 2017
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Our friend, colleagues, and Alliance for Nuclear Accountability coalition partners, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, has issued the following alert:

Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will hold an historic hearing this Tuesday, November 14, on the President’s authority to unilaterally choose to use nuclear weapons. According to Sen. Corker, this will be the first time since 1976 that the committee has examined the authority and process for using nuclear weapons.

You read that right: neither the Senate Foreign Relations Committee nor the House Foreign Affairs Committee have considered this vital issue in 41 years!

You are receiving this message because you have a Senator on the Foreign Relations Committee. It is vital that you contact your Senator immediately and ask her/him to attend Tuesday’s hearing and ask important questions.

You can reach your Senator’s office by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

You can also click here to send your Senator a message electronically.

Here are some points that we encourage you to make while contacting your Senator:

1. The use of nuclear weapons under any circumstances would be unacceptable. 159 nations have signed on to a declaration that “it is in the interest of the very survival of humanity that nuclear weapons are never used again, under any circumstances.”
2. Pope Francis just declared that even the possession of nuclear weapons “is to be firmly condemned.” You can read the full statement by Pope Francis here.
3. The International Committee of the Red Cross has stated that there are no effective means of assisting survivors in the aftermath of a nuclear detonation.
4. Congress currently has no say in whether a President can use nuclear weapons. The U.S. President can decide to launch nuclear weapons at any time, for any reason, without consulting Congress. Senate Bill 200, currently pending in the Foreign Relations Committee, would change that.

Please take a couple of minutes today to contact your Senator. We simply cannot miss this opportunity to have these issues raised in the U.S. Senate.

TAKE ACTION!

Article originally appeared on Beyond Nuclear (https://archive.beyondnuclear.org/).