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John,
This week Congress is voting on 2025’s military budget. As I do every year, I’m voting against the military budget and demanding investments in our communities instead.
Each year most of my colleagues in Congress vote to spend nearly $1 trillion U.S. taxpayer dollars on the U.S. Department of Defense, which has failed to pass an audit for seven years in a row. Half of this massive budget lines the pockets of for-profit corporations in the weapons and military industry, which then go on to spend millions of dollars lobbying and re-electing members of Congress who determine military funding.
To address this endless cycle, I introduced legislation to prohibit members of Congress from having any financial interests in corporations that do business with the U.S. Department of Defense—including banning members from trading weapons stocks. Ahead of this week’s vote, I’m calling on my colleagues to stop profiting from war and to oppose the military budget.
Today, I also introduced Amnesty International’s new report into the congressional record, which concludes “that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.”1 My colleagues can no longer deny that this is genocide. Together, we’re urging them to join our calls for the U.S. to stop arming and funding these war crimes.
Can you add your name to join me this week in calling to invest in life rather than war and death? Call on members of Congress to oppose the military budget, stop profiting from war, and stop supporting Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.
Between 2019 and 2021, 97 members of Congress or their family members financially invested in companies that make military equipment, and 25 of them sat on committees directly responsible for shaping military policy and funding. These are unacceptable conflicts of interest, which is why I introduced the Stop Politicians Profiting from War Act to ban members of Congress from investing in weapons contractors.
In 2022, the weapons industry hired 858 lobbyists, “more than one for every member of Congress.”2 Most Secretaries of Defense come directly from this industry, which spent $250 million on lobbying and $56 million in direct campaign donations over the past few years.
Our government representatives must prioritize people’s needs over corporate profits—and over their own personal profits. Members of Congress shouldn’t be able to use their positions of power to get rich while voting to pass more funding to bomb innocent civilians.
As the Secretary General of Amnesty International said last week:
“Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them. ...Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now. States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide…”
Let’s send a wake-up call to Congress this week.
Please add your name to join me in calling on members of Congress to oppose the military budget, stop profiting from war, and stop supporting Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.
Thank you for continuing to stand for life and dignity for all. Alongside you, I will continue the push to rein in military spending and corporate greed, and to instead invest in everyday workers and families.
In service and solidarity,
Rashida
1. Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza
2. Corporate accountability and the military industrial complex
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