War funding bill still in Congress, please call today

 In Congress, Iraq, Middle East, military, Peace, troops, War

Just two weeks ago the House and Senate voted for more than $90 billion in “emergency supplemental funding” for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of which goes towards military operations. Please call now for peace!

Because the Senate added additional funding and amendments, the two chambers need to appoint conferees to hammer out the differences, then both the House and Senate will need to vote on the final bill before sending it to the President for his signature.  Votes could happen in the next several days.

For various political reasons that you can read about here, Democratic leadership is having a tough time garnering the votes they need to pass the war funds.  House sources tell me that 28 of the 52 Representatives that voted for peace have said they will do so again.

During the horrible Bush Administration, we continued to build more and more “no” votes for war funding. We didn’t stop the funding then and I doubt we will now. What we did do – and what you can help do today – is strengthen the political power of our allies in congress and let your peace voice be heard to law makers who continue to believe in the same failed military solutions instead of implementing peace solutions such as diplomacy, aid and development.

Take four steps for peace:

1. Click here to look up your Congressional delegation contact information or call the congressional switchboard directly at 202-224-3121.

2. Call your Representative and ask for the foreign policy staff person. Most offices are open from 9 AM til 5 or 6 PM Eastern. Some offices allow you to leave messages after hours or you can call their local district offices.

Find out how your Rep. voted by clicking here.

If they voted no, thank them and make sure they plan to vote no again and are cosponsors of Rep. McGovern’s HR 2404. If they voted yes, let them know you want to see an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and you want them to vote against the supplemental funding.

3. Hang up and call both your Senators with the same message.  You can see how they voted here.

The answers congressional staffers tell you are very important intelligence for the coalition of groups working to change policy in Iraq and the Afghanistan region. Please post a comment to this blog post with your state, Representative’s name, who you talked to and what they said.

4. After you’ve made your calls sign our petition “A better plan for Afghanistan,” and forward this email to your friends and family.

Congressional politicians and some progressives still think that Afghanistan is the good war, but after eight years with no end in sight, it’s clear that the United States should not continue occupying Afghanistan.

To help build the case for an end to the war in Afghanistan, Peace Action distributed the following briefing paper “Afghanistan and Pakistan: Myths vs facts,” in Congress.

Lastly, follow me on twitter for more updates and the inside scoop on my work as a peace organizer and lobbyist. http://twitter.com/paulkawika

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Showing 3 comments
  • Jason 'Great White' (shark: AsRsP)
    Reply

    I contacted both Bill “blue DOG democrate” Nelson and Mel “Typical Conservative BLANKhole” Martinez, congressmen from Florida; because they both are supporters of The War Funding Bill and are likely vote yes on the bill. On Bill “blue DOG democrate” Nelson, I am going vote no matter what Democrate runs against, next election; he is wrong on almost every single issue. Forget about Mel “Typical Conservative BLANKhole” Martinez!

  • William
    Reply

    Sent a one-page handwritten letter to Chuck Rangel’s office. Doubt his staffers will get back to me in time to report on how he’s voting, but really there is no good reason why a Harlem Democrat should be voting for this awful bill.

  • richard andrews
    Reply

    I called Representative Jared Polis’ office (Dem. of Colo. CD-2) a few days ago. Staff indicated they expect him to vote no on the supplemental war bill again.

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