Catching up with Congressman Loebsack
Last week I was honored to have the opportunity to meet with Congressman Dave Loebsack (Iowa-5th) and his district manager, Rob Sueppel in Cedar Rapids to discuss ONE and some current legislative priorities. The congressman was very supportive of ONE and listened with great interest as we walked through material on the campaign I provided for them.
I asked the congressman to please support the President’s full requested amount of nearly $52 billion for the foreign operations bill which will continue international life saving programs and development assistance. He said he would be willing to support the president’s full request.
I also asked the congressman to support H.R. 2139, the ‘Initiating Foreign Aid Reform’ Act, which directs the president to develop a comprehensive national development strategy to modernize and improve US aid effectiveness. He said will take a look into it and hopefully co-sponsor the bill as well.
In further conversation, I told congressman Loebsack about the Big Read project and my story which appeared on the ONE Blog. The congressman is on the Education and Labor Committee, as well as the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education. He is a former college professor and has even taken students on trips to areas of extreme poverty. He seemed very receptive to being a primary supporter of the Big Read objective — $2 billion in education funding — if and when that comes before the Congress.
Finally, I told them about some of the campaign activity locally and plans I have for outreach within the faith community as well as local colleges in the fall.
Before he left I gave a white ONE band to both Congressman Loebsack and Mr. Suppel, which they both enthusiastically took and wore.
It was a great meeting and I sincerely thank the congressman and his staff for taking the time to talk to me about these important life saving pieces of legislation.
-Thad Collins, Iowa ONE Member
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May 26, 2009 at 12:07 am
Thank you for what you are doing for Africa.
God bless you.
June 2, 2009 at 2:26 am
Yes, this is truly amazing. If you have a change to stop by my little lens on poverty, please do, its at http://www.squidoo.com/worldhunger I would love to have your input in the debate.