Upgrade Aid Petition Delivery
Yesterday a team of ONE members, interns and staff delivered our Upgrade Aid petition with more than 45,000 signatures from ONE members across the country.
We were well-received in every office we visited, reflecting the bipartisan nature of the bill we support: S.1524, the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act. This bill will give USAID, the agency handling most of our U.S. foreign aid, the tools and people it needs to better fight hunger and poverty around the world.
After repeated delays due to lack of sufficient grassroots support, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is now on-track and scheduled to discuss and mark up S.1524 next Tuesday, November 10. The fact that the Senate is making time for this bill now, despite Capitol Hill’s preoccupation with healthcare and other domestic concerns, is a big win for our movement and proof that when we come together, we can influence our legislators and really make a difference.
Your phone calls and signatures on this petition told our senators loudly and clearly that Americans care about the quality of our foreign aid. That was a message they really needed to hear. We may still have a fight to see this bill and other critical components of aid reform enacted. But better, smarter, stronger U.S. foreign aid is on the horizon — thanks in part to the ripple effects yesterday’s petition delivery is bound to have on the Senate and beyond.
Keep watching the ONE Blog for an update after the mark up on Tuesday.
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November 7, 2009 at 10:58 am
This is what I really LOVE about ONE. The efforts of thousands ONE members who signed the petitions, the work of ONE members who have established relationships with their congresspeople in their home states combined with the delivery of petitions is a wonderful recipe of success. The collaboration between members and staff from the grassroots to DC is very effective.
November 7, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I went to school in the Philippines years ago with the kids of USAID employees. This is a MUST! We need to take the wasted money from the defense budget(gut it) and do humanitarian work.