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Previously: Bulletin 255: “Special Report: ‘Draining the Nuclear Swamp,’ May 7, 2019

Bulletin 256: The Great Transformation: Nuclear Weapons Policy Considerations for Congress

May 8, 2019

Dear friends and colleagues –

How can one speak to Congress these days about nuclear weapons policy – especially to the new majority in the House, which has not really found its footing on these issues yet? Part of the reason is the wide diversity of opinion of course, which many of you are working with politically, one way or another.

Beyond that, how can one break through the mental paralysis that grips Congress about nuclear weapons issues?

Part of what has been missing are big-picture truths which provide “the rest of the story.”

We are at the end of an age. Our greatest challenge lies not in the details but in properly framing what we see around us and what lies just ahead. “Stovepiping” into narrow expert discourses is useful, but also a problem. A “deck chair” kind of problem. So for once we are leaving out the footnotes and references, for better or for worse.

Hence “The Great Transformation: Nuclear Weapons Policy Considerations for the 116th Congress.” These talking points – not at all polished or comprehensive but as truthful as we can manage in the short time available – are the basis for a briefing I will be giving tomorrow on the Hill. They are quite different than the usual briefings we have given here, but the urgency and political visibility of the multi-dimensional ecological/economic/social crisis we face are also novel.

For example we are asking the armed services committees to declare climate collapse the #1 national security threat to the United States. We know some congresspersons are interested. Will it happen? When even greater weather disasters occur, perhaps. But now – or yesterday – is the time to start changing the narrative in that direction, if we can. We can encourage tender shoots.

The issues have layers, like onions. I have tried to offer a palette of policy choices in each layer, starting with some pit production details misrepresented in recent hearings – including by Senator Heinrich in a hearing today. That will be part of the story in the next bulletin, tomorrow if at all possible. We do have news to share, and it’s not too bad.

Best wishes,

Greg Mello, for the Study Group