Desmond Tutu: ‘Debt is Modern-Day Apartheid’

Be sure to check out the op-ed about debt, healthcare and the urgency of passing the Jubilee Act in the Senate written by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu in Wednesday’s Baltimore Sun. Writes Tutu:

Lesotho’s situation snows how debt and extreme poverty create a crisis for children…Lesotho has only six pediatricians looking after its 800,000 children. One-third of Lesotho’s children are not in school. Meanwhile, Lesotho’s debt repayments equal its entire education budget.

He continues:

As the Senate now considers the Jubilee Act, it can do it’s part to help ensure that Africans and Asians are able to sue their own resources for their own development.

Read the full op-ed, “Debt cancellation a victory for the world,” on The Balitmore Sun’s site.

-Monét Cooper, Jubilee USA

Jubilee in the House!

The Jubilee Act just passed the House 285-132.

The bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) in June 2007 and would push for an international agreement to write off United States’ loans to qualified countries and urge the U.S. to work with other rich nations to do the same.

The money poor countries would have had to pay to debt would be directed to infrastructure development, education and health care, among other improvements.

Next step - a Senate vote.

Call Your Rep! Watch the Jubilee Act Vote!

The House of Representatives Votes on the Jubilee Act Wednesday, April 16 at 10:45 a.m.

The Jubilee Act will be debated and voted on the House floor on Wednesday, April 16. Watch it live on C-SPAN as the vote happens.

Please call your representative via the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 today and ask him/her to vote “Yes”.

Use Jubilee’s quick email form to send a message to a friend, colleague or group and urge them to take action on the Jubilee Act!

-Monet Cooper, Jubilee USA

Jubilee Passes The House

I wanted to share the good news with you that the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation passed by voice vote out of the House Financial Services Committee yesterday. We anticipate consideration by the full House of Representatives as early as Tuesday.

After the jump Jubilee’s release and an article about it that appeared in Congressional Quarterly. – Neil Watkins, Jubilee USA

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Debt Vote on Thursday. Jubilee!

It’s official, the Jubilee Act will be voted on in the House Financial Services Committee this coming Thursday, April 3 at 10 a.m. You can watch the debate and the vote here.

If your member of Congress is on the House Financial Services Committee, now would be a great time to give him/her a call and urge a yes vote on Thursday!

The committee vote is the only thing standing between the Jubilee Act & consideration by the full US House of Representatives!

We expect that after the committee vote the Jubilee Act will move fairly quickly. It will probably be considered by the full House of Representatives by Monday, April 14.

You can find a list of the members of the House Financial Services Committee here.

-Monet Cooper, Jubilee USA

Leap Into Action!

We’ve received a lot of calls and emails from Jubilee supporters who have called during our Leap Into Action Call-In Days their senators and representatives about the Jubilee Act (S. 2166 and H.R.2634), which will soon to be considered in the House and Senate.

The Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation will expand eligibility for 100 percent debt cancellation without harmful economic conditions to 67 impoverished countries in the Global South.

When you call your senators or representative, you’re calling on behalf of the millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Asia who suffer when debt repayment must be prioritized over health care, education and clean water.

Every day, Sub-Saharan Africa sends $100,000 back to America in debt payments. Imagine what could be done with that money if it were to stay in those countries.

The call you make today is a part of a national campaign to pass the Jubilee Act within the 55 legislative days Congress has this year. This is the last and final session of Congress before the elections with most of the legislative days being frontloaded prior to June.

This tight deadline makes it even more imperative for ONE members and others to call their members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor this bill.

Get the Call Script here.

More Information About the Jubilee Act here.

-Monet Cooper, Jubilee USA

Asking Voinovich to “Measure Up!” on Debt

Today, as part of Jubilee’s “Measure Up” campaign, a group of global poverty advocates and debt campaigners met with Senator Voinovich’s District Representative in Columbus, Ohio. The purpose of the meeting was to ask the Senator to become a co-sponsor of the Jubilee Act (S 2166). Our group of 4 was made up of Katie Andrews, organizer for the ONE Campaign, Ginnie Vogts, an organizer for Results, Loretta Raiford local volunteer with ONE, and Brian Swarts, national organizer for Jubilee USA.

The group highlighted for Khisha Fallon, the District Representative, the importance of reducing global poverty and the effectiveness of debt cancellation. Katie spoke about debt is holding back a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa from reaching the Millennium Development Goals. Ginnie pointed out that reducing poverty is critical to increasing global security, as impoverished countries are more vulnerable to political instability and even terrorist activity. Loretta shared her experiences working in refugee camps in Uganda, and seeing the heart-breaking need there for increased investment in health care, education and clean water. Lastly, Brian emphasized the fact that it makes good economic sense to take pro-active steps to fight poverty in places like sub-Saharan Africa, where many countries are so poor that they cannot reduce poverty through economic growth alone - cooperation from other countries is essential.

While Senator Voinovich has not issued a statement on the Jubilee Act, Khisha has said that she will pass on our ideas to him. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Voinovich would be joining Ranking Member Richard Lugar (IN) and Senator Johnny Isakson (GA) in co-sponsoring the Jubilee Act.

-Brian Swarts, National Field Organizer, Jubilee USA

Quick Jubilee Act Update

The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the Jubilee Act this morning.

Neil Watkins, Jubilee USA Action, gave a great speech on extending the promise of debt relief:

“Debt cancellation now has a ten year record of success and it is a proven tool to fight global poverty…Earlier this year I had the opportunity to see the impact of debt cancellation firsthand when a Jubilee delegation visited the Siavonga Rural Health Clinic in the Zambian countryside.

As we toured the clinic, Grace Chibanda, a pharmacist, showed us the pharmacy, which was full of Anti-Retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS. ‘Debt relief is a good thing,’ Grace told us. ‘It is getting medicines for people who didn’t have it before.”

Rep. Bachus gave an impassioned opening statement about the plight of those living in extreme poverty, “…on our worst days in Washington, we have more food, more shelter and more security than millions of our brothers and sisters have on their best days.” He went on talk about the importance of debt relief as the first step toward breaking the chains of poverty.

Read more from the hearing here.

-Erin Erlenborn, ONE’s Director of Government Affairs

I Hear Jubilee

A hearing is taking place at 10 AM EST at the Rayburn House Office Building in DC about the Jubilee Act.

You can watch or listen live online here.

-Erin Erlenborn, ONE Government Affairs Director

Jubilee! 37 More Cosponsors!

During the last two weeks, ONE members sent more than 48,000 letters and made 4,200 calls to their members of Congress urging them to support the Jubilee Act.

Before we took these thousands of actions, there was a Jubilee bill in the House with just 52 cosponsors, and no companion bill in the Senate.

Now, after Jubilee USA and ONE’s campaigns, 27 more representatives have signed on to cosponsor the Jubilee Act in the House, the Senate has introduced a companion bill and 10 key senators have signed on to cosponsor it.

You can see the full list of representatives and senators who have shown their support by cosponsoring here and here on Thomas.loc.gov.

If your representative or either of your state’s senators are signed on, please thank them using our online tool.

If your representative’s or either of your senators’ names aren’t on the list, there’s still plenty you can do to encourage them.

1.) Write a letter to your members of Congress.
2.) Call their office. All the talking points you need are here.
3.) Write a letter to the editor to your local paper about unjust debt in the developing world and the Jubilee Act.
4.) Schedule a meeting with your representative’s state or DC office. Email giveyourtime@one.org for all the resources you’ll need.

Use the comment thread below to let us know if your representative and senators have signed on yet - and to add your ideas or questions about how to get their support for this critical bill.