Call and Write Congress!


Call, Write, and E-Mail U.S. Representatives
asking they co-sponsor HR-2647!
Ask U.S. Senators to introduce similar legislation!
Write the President! And the U.N. Nuclear Powers!
Send Letters to Editors!

Sign Petition Online!
Other Important Legislation

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, at her press conference July 30, 1999 re-introducing her "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act" for the fourth time, said people shouldn't just write letters to Representatives and Senators; we should CALL these Congresspeople and heads of state, then fax or write, then if possible follow up with another phone call, saying, "You've signed on, haven't you? You haven't? Well you sure should! Here's why!" THIS will achieve results, Norton promised. She said that she will keep introducing the legislation into the House ("These things take time!"), and urged us to try to get the bill introduced into the Senate as well, and seek bipartisan support. Perhaps it's worth a try, since she has now introduced the evolving bill TEN times (HR-1334 in 2011-2012, with terrific and timely revisions).

Will you help?

We strongly encourage people to send hand-written or typed letters. Congressional aides have said that one signed letter has as much impact as 100 e-mails or petition signatures. So don't send either e-mail or snail mail; send BOTH!

The Congressional Switchboard is 202-225-3121.

The postal address for any member of Congress:

Representative (Name)
U.S. House of Representatives, Washington DC 20515

or
Senator (Name)
U.S. Senate, Washington DC 20510

IMPORTANT LEGISLATION

* Del. Norton's Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act of 2003 (HR-2647)

* Rep. Woolsey's Nuclear Disarmament Convention Resolution (H.Res. 82)

* Rep. Markey's De-Alert Nuclear Weapons Resolution - H.Res. 177
(See "Back From the Brink" Campaign)

* Rep. Markey's Stockpile Stewardship Resolution - H.Res. 74

Last session's sample letters to Representatives and Senators have been provided to help you put your thoughts together, below. (Add your own first and last paragraphs, please! Individual letters count as 100 votes in Congress-land. Petitions and form letters only count as one vote.)

If you don't know who your Representative is, you can search by your zip code at the weblinks provided below. You should be able to find your Congressional leaders' D.C. office addresses and phone numbers, state addresses and phone numbers, and e-mail addresses. You can obtain fax numbers and (if missing) email addresses by calling the legislators' offices. If your Representative serves on the House Armed Services or International Relations Committees, you will get quickest results, we're told, by addressing him or her in care of those Committees.

House Armed Services Committee
2120 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-4151

House International Relations Committee
2170 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515 USA
(202) 225-5021 | HIRC@mail.house.gov

House Telephone Numbers
Search Representatives by Name
Senators (search out fax numbers, email and websites)
Congressional E-Mail Directory (Webslingers)
Rollcall Find Your Representative (or Senator)
Contacting Congress by Zip Code
House of Representatives "Write Your Representative"
New York Times Congressional Directory
WorldNet Daily - Write to Congress - Guide to Congress - Guide to Media - Guide to States

E-Mail, fax, or phone the Nuclear Powers:
- China: E-mail: chnun@undp.org
- France: E-mail: fraun@undp.org, Phone:011-33-147-42-8100, Fax:011-33-147-42-2465
- India: E-mail: indun@undp.org, Phone:011-91-11-301-3040, Fax:011-91-11-301-6857
- Israel: E-mail: pm@pmo.gov.il, Phone:011-972-270-5555, Fax:011-972-266-4838
- Pakistan: E-mail: pakistan@undp.org, Telex:5742
- Russia:E-mail: webmaster@gov.ru, Phone:011-70-95-925-3581, Fax: 011-70-95-205-4219
- UK: E-mail:gbrun@undp.org, Phone:011-44-171-270-3000, Fax:Not Available
- USA: E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov, vice-president@whitehouse.gov, Phone:202-456-1111 and 202-456-1414, Fax:202-456-2461

Also, e-mail and call the President! White House Hotline: 202-456-1111 (0 for live operator), 9-5 Monday-Friday

Email: President (or Vice President)
Write: c/o White House, Washington D.C. 20500

SAMPLE LETTER TO REPRESENTATIVES
(Letter to Senators)

(Add your own first and last paragraphs, please!)

(See Congressional Websites Listed Above)

The Hon. __________________________
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington DC 20515

Dear Representative _________________

I ask you please to actively co-sponsor Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's HR-1334, the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act", which she has introduced ten times, most recently on July 16, 2001.

This legislation is a timely vehicle by which Congress can signal its intent to abide by Article 6 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. With international revelations by retired generals and admirals that nuclear weapons are unsafe, unnecessary, and insane -- with the July 8, 1996 World Court decision that nuclear weapons could and should be illegal -- with India and Pakistan first testing, and then calling for a U.N. convention to ban nuclear weapons worldwide -- with the development, use, and growing rejection of deadly depleted uranium weapons -- with development of weapons in space -- with the growing global pressure for abolition of nuclear weapons -- with constituents everywhere still looking for the "Peace Dividend" -- this bill's time has come.

Since it goes into effect when ALL countries possessing nuclear weapons join the U.S. in nuclear disarmament and conversion of their war machines, it offers very little security risk and a great deal of good public relations. Domestically, it marks those funds formerly needed to produce and deploy nuclear weapons for conversion and cleanup .

How this might work.

How this might work.

In June 1998, the Brookings Institute published a book, "Atomic Audit," also known as the "Nuclear Weapons Cost Project" (http://www.brookings.org/FP/PROJECTS/NUCWCOST/WEAPONS.HTM). According to the Washington Post, this book proves that the U.S. government spent over 5.8 trillion dollars on nuclear weapons.

Why not spend the money instead on the future: the first few years to be spent paying workers to retrain while arms manufacturers (of all varieties) retool their factories to MASS-PRODUCE clean energy systems such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydrogen, hydro, and other quite marvelous devices which have already been built and PROVEN?

The advantages to this are clear:

a. Nuclear power plants can produce nuclear weapons grade materials for warheads, and DO produce hideously dangerous waste which lasts for thousands of years, and which scientists still don't know what to do about. Therefore, we must stop producing any more waste and contain the existing waste WHERE IT IS for the moment.

b. Fossil Fuels are not the answer; some scientists predict that the world will run out of fossil fuels by the year 2050. Also, fossil-fuel energy systems are said to be causing the greenhouse effect, and the hole in the ozone layer.

c. Whoever gets into the clean / renewable energy business(es) will make money, just as the computer industry has. Government subsidies may be necessary for startup, but taxpayers won't have to subsidize these new industries for long. If Lockheed and GE, etc., were to convert from making missiles to hi-tech clean-energy devices, the problem would be nearly solved. Indeed, a number of major arms and energy providers are doing basic research in renewable energy. What's needed, though, is legislation to lure those giants into mass-producing windmills, geothermal and hydrogen fuel systems, rather than missiles and guns.

Please advise me that you have added your name to the list of active co-sponsors of Delegate Norton's "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act" in 2001. This bill can launch a peace dividend that will be emulated around the world.

Sincerely,

Name:
Address:
email / website:
fax / phone:

Initial Draft by Proposition One Committee
PO Box 27217 Washington DC 20038 USA - et@prop1.org

_______________________________________________

LETTER TO U.S. SENATORS
U.S. Senate
Washington DC 20510

(Letter to Representatives)

Dear Senator :

Please introduce into the Senate a mirror of the House Bill, HR-1334, the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act" introduced by Washington DC's delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton ten times in response to a successful voter initiative, and co-sponsored by a number of Representatives in prior sessions.

This legislation is a timely vehicle by which Congress can signal its intent to abide by Article 6 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. With international revelations by retired generals and admirals that nuclear weapons are unsafe, unnecessary, and insane -- with the July 8, 1996 World Court decision that nuclear weapons could and should be illegal -- with India and Pakistan first testing, and then calling for a U.N. convention to ban nuclear weapons worldwide -- with the development, use, and growing rejection of deadly depleted uranium weapons -- with development of weapons in space -- with the growing global pressure for abolition of nuclear weapons -- with constituents everywhere still looking for the "Peace Dividend" -- this bill's time has come.

Since it goes into effect when ALL countries possessing nuclear weapons join the U.S. in nuclear disarmament and conversion of their war machines, it offers very little security risk and a great deal of good public relations. Domestically, it marks those funds formerly needed to produce and deploy nuclear weapons for conversion and cleanup .

How this might work.

How this might work.

In June 1998, the Brookings Institute published a book, "Atomic Audit," also known as the "Nuclear Weapons Cost Project" (http://www.brookings.org/FP/PROJECTS/NUCWCOST/WEAPONS.HTM). According to the Washington Post, this book proves that the U.S. government spent over 5.8 trillion dollars on nuclear weapons.

Why not spend the money instead on the future: the first few years to be spent paying workers to retrain while arms manufacturers (of all varieties) retool their factories to MASS-PRODUCE clean energy systems such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydrogen, hydro, and other quite marvelous devices which have already been built and PROVEN?

The advantages to this are clear:

a. Nuclear power plants can produce nuclear weapons grade materials for warheads, and DO produce hideously dangerous waste which lasts for thousands of years, and which scientists still don't know what to do about. Therefore, we must stop producing any more waste and contain the existing waste WHERE IT IS for the moment.

b. Fossil Fuels are not the answer; some scientists predict that the world will run out of fossil fuels by the year 2050. Also, fossil-fuel energy systems are said to be causing the greenhouse effect, and the hole in the ozone layer.

c. Whoever gets into the clean / renewable energy business(es) will make money, just as the computer industry has. Government subsidies may be necessary for startup, but taxpayers won't have to subsidize these new industries for long. If Lockheed and Marietta and GE, etc., were to convert from making missiles to hi-tech clean-energy devices, the problem would be nearly solved. Indeed, a number of major arms and energy providers are doing basic research in renewable energy. What's needed, though, is legislation to lure those giants into mass-producing windmills, geothermal and hydrogen fuel systems, rather than missiles and guns.

You can start in your own state. Please advise us that you will introduce into the Senate the "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act of 2001." This bill can launch a peace dividend that will be emulated around the world.

Sincerely,

Ellen Thomas, Proposition One Committee / The Conversion Project, http://prop1.org

Corbin Harney, Spiritual Leader, Western Shoshone Nation; Shundahai Network, http://www.shundahai.org

Mitzi and Peter Bowman, Coordinators - Don't Waste Connecticut,

Alice Slater, New York - GRACE Public Fund, http://www.gracelinks.org

B. J. Armstrong, Peace Action, http://www.peace-action.org/

Ms. B.J. Medley, ECO - Tulsa, Oklahoma

Bob Kinsey, Colorado Peace and Justice Task Force, Rocky Mountain Conference, United Church of Christ

George Crocker, Executive Director, North American Water Office, Lake Elmo MN

Bruce A Drew, Communications Director, Prairie Island Coalition, Minneapolis MN

Edith Villastrigo, National Legislative Director, Women Strike for Peace, DC

David Crockett Williams, Global Peace Walk 2000, California, http://www.globalpeacenow.org

Dennis F. Nester, The Roy Process, Phoenix AZ, http://members.home.net/theroyprocess

John Hallam, Friends of the Earth, Sydney, Australia, http://homepages.tig.com.au/~foesyd

Bruce K. Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space - Florida, http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk

Greg Wingard, Exec. Dir., Waste Action Project, Seattle WA

Owen Berio - Dawn Watch - Washington http://dawnwatch.org

James McGuinness, Shundahai Network; Seeds of Peace; NucNews

Kathy Dorn, Irradiation Free Food Hawaii

Michael D. Casper - Penn State U., Pennsylvania Transportation Institute

Pat Broudy, Nat'l Association of Atomic Veterans

Petra Moessner, Dallas, TX, Abolition Caucus Member

Molly Johnson, Save Ward Valley - CA, http://www.earthrunner.com/savewardvalley/

Scott Mathern-Jacobson, Catholic Worker, Fargo ND

Sheila Baker/Blaine Metcalf, War Resistors League, San Luis Obispo, CA

Bill Smirnow, Nuclear Free New York

Dan Fahey, Military Toxics Project - DU

Sylvia Zisman, New Jersey, Hiroshima Day Remembrance Committee

Donna & Tom Howard-Hastings, Wisconsin, Laurentian Shield Resources for Nonviolence

Vina Colley (PRESS), Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security - Ohio

Chris Ney, Disarmament Coordinator, War Resisters League - New York, http://www.nonviolence.org/wrl

Helen Caldicott MD, Founding President, Physicians for Social Responsibility; STAND, http://www.noradiation.org/caldicott/

Pamela S. Meidell, Director, The Atomic Mirror / Abolition 2000: A Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

Mike Ewall, Dir, Pennsylvania Environmental Network, Nuclear Waste & Green Energy Leadership Teams, http://www.penweb.org/

Frances L. Fox, Monterey, CA 93940

Ak Malten, Global Anti-Nuclear Alliance, The Netherlands, http://www.cornnet.nl/~akmalten/welcome.html

Jill Stallard - UK, Abolition Caucus Member

Solange Fernex, President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) - France

Mary Byrd Davis, Iggdrasil Institute, Georgetown, KY

Marvin Lewis, Philadelphia, PA 19136

Jean Clautaire-Frerreys Pouele, Executive Director, EARTH ACTION-CONGO

Malla Kantola, Committee of 100 in Finland

Di McDonald, Nuclear Information Service (NIS) Britain

Peer de Rijk, WISE International, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

William F. Santelmann, Jr. - Massachusetts, Metro-Boston Committee to De-Alert Nuclear Weapons

Bonnie Urfer, Nukewatch, Luck WI

Ward & Dorothy Hodge, Grawn, Michigan 49637

Kay Cumbow, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, MI

Anna C. Tucker, Virginia Veterinarian

Alice Zachman, Director, Guatemala Human Rights Commission

Daniel Simuie, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Richard N. Salvador, Pacific Islands Association of NGOs, Honolulu, Hawaii

Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) , Livermore, California, USA http://www.igc.org/tvc/

GreenPlanet Social Justice & Ecology Network, Windsor, Ontario Canada, http://www.mnsi.net/~cea

Harry Rogers, Carolina Peace Resource Center, Columbia SC

Colby Lowe, Peace Action, Fairfield, CT

Alexey Yablokov, President, The Center for Russian Environmental Policy, Moscow


PLEASE INTRODUCE INTO THE SENATE

A MIRROR BILL TO:

U.S. House Bill HR-2647 (2003-2004),
with proposed new clause/font>:

SEC. 1. The `Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act'

SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AND ECONOMIC CONVERSION.
The United States Government shall--
(1) disable and dismantle all its nuclear weapons and refrain from replacing them at any time with any weapons of mass destruction;
(2) redirect resources that are currently being used for nuclear weapons programs to use--
(A) in converting all nuclear weapons industry employees, processes, plants, and programs smoothly to constructive, ecologically beneficial peacetime activities during the 3 years following the effective date of this Act, and
(B) in addressing human and infrastructure needs such as housing, health care, education, agriculture, and environmental restoration,
***including alternative fuel sources***;
(3) undertake vigorous good faith efforts to eliminate war, armed conflict, and all military operations; and
(4) actively promote policies to induce all other countries to join in these commitments for world peace and security.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.
This Act shall take effect when the President certifies to the Congress that all foreign countries possessing nuclear weapons have established legal requirements comparable to those set forth in section 2 and those requirements have taken effect.

You can quickly register your agreement with these ideas by signing the online petition in support of Congresswoman Norton's bill.


* Introduction * Sign Online Petition * Home *
* Conversion Project * Antinuclear Weblinks *
* Contact Proposition One Committee for more information *