Dear Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer,

The undersigned 48 advocacy, faith, grassroots, and government oversight organizations are troubled by reports that Members of Congress are consideringadding new funding for the Department of Defense to forthcoming infrastructureand recovery legislation. We join 24 Members of Congress led by Representatives Barbara Lee, Mark Pocan, and Cori Bush in strongly urging that no new Pentagon funding is includedin the Build Back Better agenda.

We are a nation experiencing multiple crises. We arerecovering from a year of record unemployment and housing insecurity, reeling fromthe 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 climatecrisis. 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 usedto address these urgent challenges, and will not provide the relief our communities desperately need.

There is already a well-established process by which military funding is debated and considered by Congress. Through this process, President Bidenhas already proposed a sky-high$753 billionfor the Pentagon. Defense contractors havealreadyreceived and misspent COVID relief money, and the Pentagon cannot account for the moneyit currently receives from taxpayers, having failedall four audits it has conducted inits entire history. It is urgent that Congress focus its efforts to rebuild a U.S. economy fit for the 21st century by increasing opportunities for jobs, healthcare and a green economy, rather than entertainingeven a cent more in giveaways to war profiteers and weapons manufacturers, as those dollarsare painfully and crucially needed to provide relief to working families of every stripe across the country.

We therefore urge you to ensure that no new Pentagonmoney is included in the forthcoming infrastructure legislation, and that the bill instead focuses squarely on our communities’ most urgent needs.

Signed,

National Organizations:
+Peace
Action Center on Race & the Economy
American Friends Service Committee
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
Beyond the Bomb
Brave New Films
Center for International Policy
Center on Conscience and War
Coalition for Human Needs
CODEPINK
Common Defense
Council for a Livable World
Demand Progress
Democracy for America
Eisenhower Media Network
Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC)
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Friends of the Earth US
Jewish Voice for Peace Action
Justice is Global
MADRE
National Priorities Project at the Institute for PolicyStudies
New Internationalism Project at Institute for PolicyStudies
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
Our Revolution
Pax Christi USA
Peace Action
People’s Action
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Progressive Democrats of America
Public Citizen
Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
RootsAction.org
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas – Justice Team
Sunrise Movement
The United Methodist Church – General Board of Churchand Society
United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries
Veterans For Peace
Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND)
Win Without War
Working Families Party
World BEYOND War

State and Local Organizations:
Broward for Progress, Broward County, Florida
Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility
Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Washington D.C.
Mainers for Accountable Leadership
Massachusetts Peace Action
Peace Education Center, Lansing, Michigan

“Of the many, many sectors of the economy and societythat are underfunded, the Pentagon is not among them. If there are unmet military infrastructureneeds, the bloated Pentagon budget is more than enough to attend to them. No way should a dollarbe siphoned from bridges, clean water, broadband, child care, poverty reduction, health care,averting catastrophic climate change or other acute needs in order to stuff more money in the Pentagon’soverflowing coffers.”
Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen


“With a budget of over three quarters of a trillionper year, the Pentagon and arms dealers simply don’t need any more money. But to add Pentagon porkto an initiative meant for the prosperity and safety of our communities would be truly callous.Dollar for dollar, more jobs are created when invested in sectors like clean energy and educationthan in defense spending. That’s why, when the ink is dried, any legislation under the Build BackBetter plan should robustly support the people of this country and include zero dollars for the Pentagonbudget.”
Erica Fein, Senior Washington Director, Win WithoutWar


“One crucial thing the pandemic taught us is thatwe have not invested enough in keeping our people safe from threats to our health and economicsecurity. The Biden plans make investments that protect us. Congress should invest in health,housing, jobs, and education, and resist the temptation to add yet more spending for the Pentagonand its overpaid military contractors.”
Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director, Coalition onHuman Needs


“Defense funding for the Pentagon, which has neverpassed an audit, is already at an all-time high. Instead of further lining the pockets of defense contractors,we must cut Pentagon dollars from the infrastructure bill and ensure our tax dollars benefitcommunities suffering from housing insecurity, hunger, and violent racist and patriarchal policymaking.”
Mac Hamilton, Advocacy Director, Women’s Action forNew Directions


“If there ever was a time to make it clear that ournational investment should be steered to the urgent needs of our communities and not the Pentagon, nowis that time. The crises our communities face can not be addressed by war profiteers and weaponsmanufacturers. Every dollar in Build Better Back Better needs to go toward addressing fundamentalhuman needs.”
Johnny Zokovitch, Executive Director, Pax ChristiUSA


“When we ask for spending on clean water, housing,and schools, Congress tacks on more money for weapons and war. This is unacceptable, and Congressmust soundly reject all attempts to funnel money meant for our communities into weapons, war,and the pockets of defense contractors.”
Tori Bateman, Policy Advocacy Coordinator, AmericanFriends Service Committee


“Putting infrastructure money into a massively overfundedinstitution whose purpose has been accurately and popularly described as ‘to kill peopleand break things’ is the opposite of infrastructure and of what’s needed to protect humanand other life on earth.”
David Swanson, Executive Director, World BEYOND War


“It is imperative that we realign our national valuesand how we define ‘national security,’ as well as address domestic needs and structural injustice. Thepandemic has laid bare the need to shift where we place our priorities—and our resources. We reaffirmamessagethat Pope Francis had offered to world leaders on the pandemic, ‘This crisis is affectingus all, rich and poor alike,’ noting that the crisis is ‘putting a spotlight on hypocrisy,’ criticizingworld leaders who rush to save lives while they keep manufacturing weapons, building massive arsenalsand perpetuating unjust economic systems.”
Jean Stokan, Justice Coordinator for Nonviolence


“Every extra dollar for the military budget is a dollarrobbed from the critical task that lies ahead of us: transforming our infrastructure to address therealities of climate change. It would be a crimeto flood the Pentagon and private military contractorswith more cash so they can continue to destroy infrastructure in other countries and contaminateland in this country.”
Carley Towne, Co-Director, CODEPINK


“The U.S. must reorient its priorities to protectthe health and welfare of its people–and build toward a just and sustainable future. Don’t divert infrastructureresources to the military.”
Martin Fleck, Director, Nuclear Weapons AbolitionProgram, Physicians for Social Responsibility

Published by Public Citizen.