About Proposition One: Economic Conversion of War Machines

Great News! DC's Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has just introduced the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act" for the first time ... an important improvement to the nine-times-introduced "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act" which she has promoted ever since 1994 (see below). We will be posting the bill number and text in the next few days. We of the Proposition One Campaign thank Ms. Norton for her vision, courage, and patience over these many years. We hope you will thank her, too. We also hope you will join the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, among others, in calling on your members of Congress to co-sponsor this bill QUICKLY.

Background: Proposition One Campaign is a grassroots movement for disarmament of nuclear weapons and the conversion of nuclear and other arms industries to provide for human and environmental needs. The concept was proven viable by the victory of DC Initiative 37 in 1993. 

As a result, the "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act" was introduced each session between 1994 and 2009 into the U.S. House of Representatives by Eleanor Holmes Norton. During 2009 and 2010, Proposition One co-founder Ellen Thomas and a team from DC traveled 30,000 around the country learning about the entire nuclear chain, from uranium mines (reclaimed and not), to nuclear power and weapons plants, to radioactive storage facilities, and promoting voter initiatives everywhere. During that time they became convinced that we will never be sure of abolishing nuclear weapons until there are no longer nuclear power plants, which for sixty years have been producing weapons-grade uranium and plutonium. The travelers received excellent suggestions for improving the language of the proposed bill, which up till now hasn't been getting much respect from Congress. They proposed revisions which Ms. Norton accepted.

The bill was first introduced in 1994, then 1995, 1997, and 1999, when U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey (CA) joined Ms. Norton and several experts on nuclear disarmament issues to announce active support for the legislation, and again in 2001, 2003, and 2005 (when Representative Woolsey, plus John Lewis and Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, and Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas, quickly signed on). In 2007 there were no co-signatories, but in 2009 John Lewis and Lynn Woolsey's aides repeatedly told us that they signed on to HR-1653, although you'd never know about it by searching Congressional bills. (See Ms. Norton's 2009 announcement, which she timed to recognize Proposition One co-founder William Thomas, who died on January 23, 2009.)

Other co-sponsors over the years have included Fortney Pete Stark (California), David Minge and James Oberstar (Minnesota), Charles Rangel (New York), Al Wynn (Maryland), and Earl Hilliard (Alabama). As each Congressional session ends, all unvoted-on legislation expires and must be re-introduced. Your help is needed in obtaining LOTS of co-sponsors in this Congress! Bipartisan support would be very helpful.


Contact Proposition One Committee for more information.

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PROPOSITION ONE CAMPAIGN
P.O. Box 27217 * Washington, D.C. 20038
(202) 682-4282 or (202) 210-3886
e-mail: et@prop1.org