March 7th, 2008 at 12:57 pm | posted by Virginia Simmons
Right now, the Senate is considering a $4 billion cut from the president’s 2009 request for poverty-fighting funding. Most devastating - if passed, this cut would be a $1 billion drop from 2008 levels.
Thankfully, Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) have introduced an amendment to restore $2.6 billion to the international affairs budget.
This is where ONE comes in.
We only have a week to get the majority of the Senate to decide to support this amendment - so we’re doing what we do best - launching a petition!
Add your name here.
We’re hoping to get 60 U.S. senators to sign up in support of Senator Durbin and Smith’s amendment - which means we need support from senators in every state in America.
I’ll updates you with how many ONE members have signed the petition, and how many senators have signed on, throughout the week. Please add your name and send the petition on to your friends. We only have 7 days to save billions of dollars worth of critical poverty-fighting programs for the most vulnerable among us.
3/10/08 UPDATE: The Amendment is now called the Feinstein-Smith Amendment. Senators Durbin, Sununu, Dodd and Coleman are co-sponsors for the Dear Colleague Letter.
Posted in 2009 Budget, Sen. Gordon Smith, Foreign Aid, Sen. Richard Durbin | 8 Comments »
February 18th, 2008 at 10:37 am | posted by Virginia Simmons
Last summer the New York Times and the Pew Global Attitudes Project released a poll that showed that Africans were “wary but hopeful” about their future and the future of the continent. With devastating poverty, a massive AIDS epidemic and political strife, their hope seems remarkable. And it is this hope and their hard work, coupled with increased efforts by the U.S., which are making Africa a better place. Still, much more must be done.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 11 percent of the world’s population and only three percent of the world’s health care workers. It suffers nearly half of the world’s deaths from infectious diseases and bears nearly two-thirds of the world’s HIV burden.
Thankfully, due to global leadership, over $7 billion has been distributed to 136 counties through the Global Fund in just 5 years. This program expands our ability to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria – a devastating but treatable and preventable disease. To date, every dollar committed by the US has been matched and doubled by contributions from other donors. The Global Fund needs to be expanded so we can continue to invest in the future of the continent by ensuring Africans have access to basic health care. This is a priority of mine and of ONE.
While I don’t agree with the President about much, we both feel that improving access to health care is one of the most important things our country can provide to the people of Africa. He has made good on his commitment by proposing to spend $30 billion over 5 years to combat global AIDS through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). I’m proud of this program and will work in the Senate to make sure that it is not only funded but expanded.
We are making strides, and we should be proud of our work to date, but we must continue to challenge ourselves to do more.
-U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
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UPDATE: Cross Posted on the Huffington Post.
Posted in Bush Africa Trip, HIV/AIDS, Sen. Richard Durbin | 1 Comment »
July 30th, 2007 at 12:14 pm | posted by Matthew Bartlett, ONE Regional Organizer
On Friday night I was stopping at a red light in Nashua, NH, when I noticed someone in a ONE shirt on the corner. I always get excited to see people in ONE bands and ONE shirts as it is a simple way to show support for the ONE Campaign and the world’s poorest people. So I rolled down the window and yelled to him and gave him the thumbs up. He laughed and waved.
Then I looked at him again and asked, “Are you Senator Durbin”?, and he very surprisingly and excitedly said “Yes”! I tried to get a photo, but the light turned green, so I quickly parked my car and tried to find out where he, and the person he was with, were going.
As I hit Main Street in Nashua, I spotted the senator walking into an Irish pub down the street. I was about to enter the pub when I ran into a ONE member named Al Kitomari in his ONE shirt. Al is a college student who is originally from Tanzania.
I asked Al if he was wearing his ONE shirt for a specific reason (as if he was going to meet Sen. Durbin), but he told me that he always wears his ONE shirt with pride. I told Al about Sen. Durbin being inside the pub so we quickly went in for a picture of Al and Sen. Durbin in their identical ONE shirts.
Sen. Durbin was very warm and graciously took the photo. He was in New Hampshire to help campaign for Sen. Obama’s presidential bid. He asked Al and me to sit down and have dinner with him and the Obama staffer he was with. Al was going to meet a few friends, but I sat down and over dinner we discussed ONE and ONE Vote ‘08 (noting Obama sporting the ONE band in state and Sen. Daschle as national chair).
Sen. Durbin told me how he would partner with Republican senators like Sen. Brownback and Sen. DeWine, to offer amendments that would help fully fund US efforts to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty. I told him how, as a ONE volunteer, I clearly remember as I have called the Senate many times to ask my own senators to support these amendments with his name on it.
We talked about the Global Fund, MCC, and PEPFAR and even mentioned the Clean Water event that he attended in Chicago a few months ago. Sen. Durbin was very responsive and we even discussed the need to reform the Farm Bill to allow poor African farmers an opportunity to trade their way out of poverty.
It was an incredible chance meeting that shows no matter where you are - DC or Main Street in NH, and no matter who you are - a US Senator or an African student, the ONE Campaign is bringing people together across the political divide, and across the ocean, to unite as ONE and make poverty history!
Posted in Sen. Richard Durbin, New Hampshire, ONE Vote 08 | 5 Comments »
