Friends Committee on National Legislation / Marylia Kelley / Tri-Valley CAREs – 2008-02-05 21:28:46
http://action.fcnl.org/r/5408/32244/
Budget: Highest Military Spending
Since World War II
(February 5, 2008) — President Bush’s 2009 budget would increase spending on the military to $515 billion — and this number doesn’t even count the billions the US is spending every day in Iraq.
The White House says the military budget — again not counting spending on Iraq — has grown by 70 percent since President Bush took office. Keep checking our website for updated analysis of the federal budget.
Budget: Do You Like
Oreo Cookies?
FCNL’s crack team of budget analysts is pouring over the details of the president’s $3 billion fiscal year 2009 budget request. Meanwhile, if you haven’t already seen it, take a look at Ben Cohen’s Oreo cookie analysis of the budget which uses slightly different figures than FCNL but provides a wonderful graphic introduction to the issues.
Do You Want to Increase the
Size of the Military?
No? Neither do most people in the United States. All of the major presidential candidates want to increase the size of the military. Help demonstrate support for peace by displaying a War is Not the Answer sign. Then ask questions and urge all the candidates to invest in proven strategies for peace, not more money for war.
In the News:
Towards a Nuclear Free World
The world is at a nuclear tipping point, write former secretary of states George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former secretary of defense William Perry, and former senator Sam Nunn in a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. They outline a series of concrete steps that the U.S., Russia, and other nations should take to pull back from the nuclear precipice.
Reliable Replacement Warhead Request
Is $40 Million (So Far)
Marylia Kelley / Tri-Valley CAREs
(February 5, 2008) — The United States is embarking on a major program to develop new nuclear weapons through an initiative called the “Reliable Replacement Warhead” (RRW) program. Several news stories about the DOE budget request this morning quote a $10 million figure for the RRW (because that is the only amount that DOE really talked about in its budget briefing). However…
In Volume 1 of the DOE Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request, NNSA Overview, page 17, under the heading “Key Changes Within the FY 2009 Request” are the following 3 bullet points
• Within Directed Stockpile Work, $10 million is requested to enable maturation of the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) design…
• In the Science Campaign, $20 million is requested for the Advanced Certification Program [for RRW]… evaluate and implement key recommendations of the JASON’s RRW study regarding approaches to establishing an accredited warhead certification plan…
• Within Enhanced Surety, $10 million is included in the request for evaluation of surety options for possible future systems, whether LEPs or RRW systems.
These are funding requests from 3 parts of the DOE NNSA budget to carry out 3 specific activities moving forward with the Reliable Replacement Warhead program.
Therfore, at a MINIMUM, the DOE budget request contains $40 million in direct funds for the RRW program in Fiscal Year 2009.
(The indirect funds are likely more — much more.) I will be reading further in the coming days.
Marylia Kelley is Executive Director of Tri-Valley CAREs, 2582 Old First Street, Livermore, CA 94551.
Ph: (925) 443-7148. Fx: (925) 443-0177
www.trivalleycares.org
marylia@trivalleycares.org or marylia@earthlink.net
