Our Work to Fight Poverty in 2011 Starts…NOW!

Nov 16th, 2009 10:00 AM UTC
By Maryamu.Aminu

While Congress scrambles to finish the appropriations bills to fund 2010 programs, President Obama has already begun to prepare his budget for FY2011 — which he will send to Congress shortly after his State of the Union address in January.

The International Affairs Budget funds the U.S. State Department and its diplomatic efforts to keep America safe and build allies, as well as USAID and our contributions to important organizations including UNICEF, the World Bank, the Global Fund, PEPFAR, GAAVI, and more. Therefore, we need the President’s requested amount to be a high as possible to support and expand critical programs to improve basic education, child survival and maternal health, debt relief, agricultural development, and many others.

Fortunately, we have champions in Congress willing to send a message to the President that they would welcome a strong request for funding for international affairs. That message is known as the Berman-Kirk letter in the House of Representatives, and it has a companion in the Kerry-Lugar-Feinstein letter in the Senate.

Now here’s your part. Your member of Congress in the House of Representatives needs to know the International Affairs Budget is important to you, or else he or she might not sign on to the Berman-Kirk letter requesting a robust International Affairs Budget.

Tell your representative to sign the letter now.

Our target is 170 letter signers in the House of Representatives, and we’ll deliver your messages right before the November 25 deadline for members of Congress to sign on to the letter. So you have just seven days to help us create a movement around the 2011 International Affairs Budget. Your time starts…now!

Thanks and Best Wishes;

-Maryamu Aminu, Assistant Director, US Government Relations

TAGS: FY2011 US budget