Executive Director John Tierney was quoted in an article in the Daily Beast about the dinners the Center hosts for Members of Congress.
They take place once every couple of months at a restaurant or townhome on Capitol Hill and are organized by former Democratic congressman John Tierney, who heads a group that advocates nuclear nonproliferation. Attendance is usually strong—at least a couple of dozen lawmakers show up—and they’re joined by experts like former Secretary of State John Kerry and former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
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“As I say to members, if you make a mistake on a financial bill, someone’s going to lose a few bucks,” Tierney told The Daily Beast in an interview at the offices of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, his advocacy group. “If you make a mistake on one of these bills… catastrophe.”
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Tierney, the group’s organizer, would not say specifically which members attend.
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That’s why the privacy is so important, said Tierney. “If you ask some of these questions at a committee hearing, you’re going to get killed,” he said. “It’s an expectation that isn’t realistic, but the public doesn’t know that.”
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“Whatever is said in the room stays in the room,” Tierney said. “We don’t disclose the people who participate, all in the idea they want to be comfortable, they want to ask whatever questions they want to ask, explore any thought process they want to explore, without it being brought back on them.”
The dinner series has been going strong for several years—over 100 lawmakers have attended at least one session, Tierney says—and his group hopes to expand that number and keep the program fresh as members cycle in and out of Congress.
Among some newer members, he says, there exists somewhat cavalier and troubling attitude toward nuclear nonproliferation, echoing the president’s national security adviser, John Bolton, who has a long history of contempt for arms control agreements.
“You get a sense that some people have probably lost a little bit of appreciation for what the consequences of a nuclear explosion are,” said Tierney. “It’s another area we could really do better.” Read more
