Take action: Urge support of HRes. 77

The Back from the Brink campaign invites all to participate in this week’s “Week of Action” — take a few minutes to urge your member of Congress to support House Resolution 77, which calls on the U.S. to embrace the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and to adopt Back from the Brink’s policy prescriptions for reducing nuclear risks and preventing nuclear war.

This is a critical time for advocacy on nuclear weapons: In January, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds until midnight, the closest to catastrophe that it has ever been.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the subsequent conflict has heightened awareness of the danger of nuclear arms. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has made veiled threats to use them, and he announced on February 21 that he would suspend Russia’s participation in the U.S and Russia’s New START Treaty (though not formally withdraw). The treaty between the U.S. and Russia, set to expire in 2026, is the last remaining agreement limiting the deployment of nuclear weapons.

The Back from the Brink campaign, of which Pax Christi USA is a member, has five policy proposals for the U.S. federal government to prevent nuclear war:

1. Actively pursue and conclude negotiations on a new, bilateral nuclear arms control and disarmament framework agreement with the Russian Federation before 2026, and pursue negotiations with China and other nuclear-armed states on an agreement or agreements for the verifiable, enforceable, and time-bound elimination of global nuclear arsenals;
2. Renounce the option of using nuclear weapons first;
3. End the president’s sole authority to launch a nuclear attack;
4. Take the nuclear weapons of the United States off hair-trigger alert;
5. Cancel the plan to replace the nuclear arsenal of the United States with modernized, enhanced weapons.

TAKE ACTION:

>> Urge your member of Congress to co-sponsor H. Res. 77, embracing the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and calling on the U.S. government to pursue the five policy proposals of the Back from the Brink campaign.

Tell your congressional representative to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to take leadership in creating cleanup, nonproliferation programs and green energy jobs.

>> Write and submit letters to the editor to your community newspapers bringing attention to the issue and to the importance of H. Res. 77 as a vehicle for building congressional leadership for nuclear disarmament. Here are some talking points from the Back from the Brink campaign.

Find more resources on nuclear disarmament at this link. If you want to engage with Pax Christi USA’s Back from the Brink campaign, contact Ronnie Fellerath-Lowell.