$55 billion.

That’s how much the U.S. spends each year maintaining its nuclear arsenal. That’s also what it would cost to provide 350 million people worldwide with clean drinking water. Or help 30 million children survive past their 5th birthday.

But instead of relieving the suffering of millions around the world, the U.S. continues to spend billions on nuclear weapons and systems. Even though the Cold War era is over, leaders in Washington keep asking for more funding for new nuclear weapons every year, and taxpayers foot the bill every time.

We need to reassess our priorities.

There is a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) that calls for the U.S. and Russia to agree upon reductions in the size of their respective nuclear arsenals. But before that happens, START must be ratified by 67 votes in the U.S. Senate.

Tell your Senators to phase out our nuclear arsenal and pass START now >

The issue isn’t just the exorbitant expense of nuclear weapons – it’s their inherent instability. With the U.S. and Russia maintaining thousands of nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert and nuclear-armed foes India and Pakistan, the elimination of nuclear weapons is more urgent than ever.

With the continued development of a nuclear arsenal, the U.S. is helping make sure nuclear weapons continue to threaten the people of the world with catastrophic possibilities. Building and maintaining nuclear weapons means there are production sites all over the world that are vulnerable to terrorist attack or to theft of weapons or weapons-grade materials.

Getting New START through the Senate is not going to be easy. Some senators still want to continue to invest billions of dollars in new nuclear weapons production facilities in exchange for a “Yes” vote on ratification.

Tell your Senators to ratify the new START agreement without preconditions or billions in new funding for the nuclear weapons complex >

If we don’t speak out and take action for a world free of nuclear weapons, who will?

Thank you for taking action,

The Change.org Team