Nearing victory on RRW

Congress has been struggling the past few weeks to come up with a budget for 2008 that won’t fall victim to President Bush’s veto pen.  Having only passed the Defense spending bill, Congress is combining the remaining 11 bills into an omnibus spending bill.  Bush and congressional Republicans have already threatened to take down previous versions, but it looks as though the current compromise has a strong chance of passing.

The exciting news in the bill is that all funds for the Reliable Replacement Warhead have been cut.  Peace Action West and many of our colleagues have been mobilizing opposition to the RRW program, a veiled attempt at manufacturing new nuclear weapons.  The House of Representatives had cut the funding, while the Senate funded the program, though at a slightly lower level than what the Bush administration asked for.  All the maneuvering around the budget, which is already more than two months late, made the potential outcome for RRW unclear.  After the nuclear bunker-buster and mini-nukes were defeated in years past, we are seeing yet another repudiation of the Bush administration’s dangerous nuclear policy. We will only know that this victory is sealed if the House and Senate pass the bill this week and President Bush signs it into law, but it is a great sign that our grassroots, media and lobbying efforts have been effective.