Rep. Smith on the Global Poverty Act

Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the Global Poverty Act of 2007, H.R. 1302. This bill states for the first time that reducing global poverty and eliminating extreme global poverty are among our foremost foreign policy goals and that the President must create a strategy to further those goals.

As ONE Campaign community members, you probably already know the numbers – that more than a billion people live on less than a dollar a day, and nearly 3 billion people live on less than 2 dollars a day. You know that extreme poverty breeds instability and that it is in our national interest to alleviate that instability.

But more than anything, you know – and I agree – that when we live in a world with such vast resources, the existence of such deep and widespread poverty is a moral affront. And yet, current U.S. policy does not require an overall strategy to focus our resources and provide accountability to our efforts to confront the menace of global poverty. This bill, should it pass in the Senate and receive the President’s signature, will change that.

The Global Poverty Act passed by a voice vote on the House floor, illustrating the bipartisan support behind the measure. That means that the goal of ending worldwide extreme poverty and reducing global poverty in general has broad bipartisan support, in part thanks to your efforts to weigh in with your public officials.

I hope you are as encouraged by the House’s passage of the Global Poverty Act as I am. I’ll be pushing in the weeks ahead to get the Senate to pass the Global Poverty Act, and I hope you’ll join me by contacting your Senators directly. Thank you for your work. If you want to see my remarks in support of the bill, feel free to visit.

Sincerely,
Adam Smith
Member of Congress