NUCLEAR TESTING MORATORIUM and COMPREHENSIVE
TEST BAN.
In early May, we reported that the Departments of Energy
and State, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were proposing
to continue nuclear test explosions up to one kiloton.
This would wreck efforts for a global ban on nuclear
testing, and it would violate U.S. law enacted and signed
last October which calls for a ban on nuclear test
explosions by 1996.
Your public outcry this month has educated editorial
boards and Members of Congress, prompting them to take
strong action. Major newspapers have begun to call for
extending the nuclear test moratorium and for a
Comprehensive Test Ban (a CTB) by 1996 or even before.
In addition, Senator Harkin IA and 22 Senate colleagues
wrote to President Clinton to urge no new testing and a
Comprehensive Test Ban. Other Members of Congress are
also writing and phoning President Clinton. The White
House has been surprised by the expression of strong
concern and is taking another look at its options.
We have not won this argument yet, but we can. The
President will probably report his recommendations to
Congress in late June. So our time for action is right
now.
ACTION: We recommend three actions, to be taken before
mid-June: (1) Collect any editorials, op-ed articles,
and letters to the editor from your state's newspapers
that advocate a CTB and no new testing. Send them to
your representative and senators right away. (2) Appeal
to your representative and senators to call or write
President Clinton right away and urge no new testing and
a real Comprehensive Test Ban. (3) As soon as possible,
please send your own message to the White House favoring
no new testing and a CTB now. Please send FCNL copies.
Thank you.
THE NATIVE AMERICAN FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION
ACT.
Senator Inouye HI is expected to introduce legislation to
amend the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978
early next week. In addition to putting "teeth" into the
1978 legislation, the amendments would protect sacred
sites and the sacramental use of peyote, guarantee Native
American prisoners' rights, and ensure the religious use
of eagle feathers. (These are the same amendments we
previously referred to as the American Indian Religious
Freedom Act Amendments of 1993, or AIRFA).
ACTION: Please call your senators before Tuesday, May
25, and urge them to become original co-sponsors of the
Native American Free Exercise of Religion Act.