When it comes to nukes, any shortcut taken can have unimaginable, devastating consequences.

So it’s shocking that the US Air Force quietly awarded Boeing — a company with a growing and troubling track record of safety failures — a five-year, half-billion dollar contract to operate, maintain, and perform testing at a Utah nuclear facility.

The same company a whistleblower said is “putting out defective airplanes” getting the keys to a nuclear facility? Terrifying.

But it’s unfortunately business as usual at the Pentagon — a mismanaged government agency that fails audit after audit and deprioritizes true security because of an insatiable appetite for weapons and war. Luckily, that’s where you come in, Friend: Congress controls the purse strings and should go further to prioritize safety and accountability.

Congress rarely hears from tens of thousands of people outraged over the minutiae of a government contract. The good news? When they do today, they’ll get a crucial reminder that the era of an unaccountable war machine is over.