Plan of Action in the House for the TPNW and the Green New Deal: “Proposition One”!

Published on February, 43 2021

Members of Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND), Nuclear Watch South (Glenn Carroll, far right), and WILPF US (Ellen Thomas, flashing a peace sign), met with then-Representative John Lewis (center) during Alliance for Nuclear Accountability DC Days in 2015, at which time Mr. Lewis agreed to co-sponsor Eleanor Holmes Norton’s “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act” … for the fifth time!  (Photo taken by Rep. Lewis’s staff member).

By Ellen Thomas
Co-chair, DISARM/End Wars Issue Committee

February 2021

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton will soon be reintroducing her “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act,” which was HR-2419 in the 115th Congress. It will have a new number this session. 

Ms. Norton said that she will welcome co-sponsors of the bill BEFORE it is introduced this session. In past sessions we have sought co-sponsors after a number was assigned. She agrees that the legislation will have more weight if more representatives join up front. The online letter you can send to your representative has a new access link.

In addition to contacting our own Representatives in the 116th Congress, we need to call and write to previous co-sponsors, asking them to contact Trent Holbrook at Ms. Norton’s office, (202) 225-8050, to say they want to be listed when the bill is re-introduced this session. 

Here is a list of the HR-2419 co-sponsors in 2019-2020 by state, several of whom have co-sponsored multiple times: 

Two other Representatives still in Congress have co-sponsored Norton's bill in the past and need to be contacted. Please advise them that the text now refers to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons:

Twelve other Representatives who are no longer in Congress signed on in the past:  John Lewis and Cynthia McKinney (Georgia), Lynn Woolsey, Bob Filner, and Pete Stark (California), Lacy Clay (Missouri), Earl Hilliard (Alabama), Al Wynn (Maryland), David Minge and James Oberstar (Minnesota), Charles Rangel (New York), and Dennis Kucinich (Ohio).

Ms. Norton has suggested that we reach out to the members of the Progressive Caucus. It seems logical that we should also reach out to the Congressional Black Caucus.

Plan of Action for the Senate

We need to let our senators know they need to support the TPNW! Please ask your US Senators to introduce the “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act” into the United States Senate, stressing that this gives them a way to show support for the TPNW by requiring that negotiations begin with all the other nuclear weapons countries, and that the bill provides funding for the weapons industries’ transformation to producing carbon-free, nuclear-free energy and other vital needs.

 

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