The National Security Act of 2024 (H.R. 815) provides funding for the Israeli genocide, the Ukraine proxy war and the provocative arming of Taiwan. Arming Ukraine and Taiwan drives us one step closer to nuclear war. The price tag on H.R. 815 is a whopping $95 billion dollars to be transferred from the pockets of the beleaguered taxpayer to the coffers of the Military Industrial Complex.
H.R 815 was passed by the Senate in February and sent to The House. Fortunately, the bill is stalled in the House, because Speaker Johnson has refused to put it on the floor for a vote. And that is to the good. This ultra-hawkish legislation should be left to die.
BUT there is an attempt to circumvent Speaker Johnson and resuscitate H.R. 815. To do so a parliamentary maneuver called a Discharge Petition has been launched by Rep. James McGovern. If a majority in the House (218 votes) sign the Discharge Petition, then H.R. 815 automatically goes to the floor for a vote without being introduced by the Speaker.
The bottom line is that, in order to stop the nefarious H.R. 815 in its tracks, Discharge Petition No. 9 must be defeated. And that is a very doable task if the forces opposed to genocide and endless wars mobilize themselves in a focused way.
Right now, the Discharge Petition has 192 signatures out of the required 218. 191 of those signatures come from Democrats, only one from a Republican and he is about to retire. For both partisan and other reasons, the Republicans are not signing on. But 22 Democrats, all from the Progressive Caucus, have also refused to sign on. The names of these 22 can be found here.
The task for antiwar activists is straightforward. Contact your Representative in the House. (Here is a list of their phone numbers and email addresses.)
If they have not signed on to the Discharge Petition, congratulate them on their antiwar stance, express your support and urge them to stick to their position.
If they have signed on to the Discharge Petition, urge them to remove their signatures. (Removing one’s signature can be done at any time before the 218 signature majority is reached.) A list of the signatories as of March 22 before the two-week Easter recess can be found here. (Signatures are not permitted when Congress is not in session.)
It would seem that the other 71 members of the Progressive Caucus who, unfortunately, have signed on are prime candidates for reversing their decision. A goal of the Progressive Caucus is “Ending our forever wars, cutting the bloated Pentagon budget, and prioritizing diplomacy.”
There is urgency to this task. When Congress returns from Easter recess on April 9, there will be a big push by the Biden administration to get more signatures. Right now, many Reps are at home and accessible to constituents. This is a golden opportunity to beat back the drive to genocide and nuclear Armageddon.
A more detailed treatment of Discharge Petition No. 9 and its implications can be found here at Antiwar.com.
