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.

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

Rep. Bachus on the Global Poverty Act

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), a long-time champion in the fight against global poverty, and a lead sponsor of the Global Poverty Act gave a great speech on the House’s floor yesterday.

An excerpt:

“Today in dozens of poor countries all over the world, little boys and girls are born into poverty, disease, and hunger. Hopelessness and despair are their daily companions. Their burdens are day-to-day, they are painful, and they are heavy.

In debating debt relief, I quoted Sister Rebecca Trujillo. She was asked – how do the poor get through the day, how do they survive? Her answer was: “Since being in Nicaragua, I have taken to answer in a matter of fact way, ‘Often they do not.’ ”

We’re fond of saying we’ve had a really bad day. But we ought to be reminded that for billions of people throughout the world that even on our worst days, we have more food, more shelter, more clothes, more security, more health care, more of everything than our poor brothers and sisters have on their best days….

Reducing global poverty is in our economic interest and our national security as well. The bill will focus our battle against global poverty. It is a powerful statement that Americans are committed to making this world a better place for all.”

Read the full statement after the jump…

(more…)

From the Department of “Gets it” - Rep. Bachus

Every time ONE members meet with US Representative Spencer Bachus (R-AL), we always start our meeting by thanking him for his leadership on global poverty issues. As an original co-sponsor of the Jubilee Act in 1999, Rep. Bachus was in on the ground floor and has worked tirelessly on debt relief issues alongside Bono/DATA and Bread for the World, both founding members of the ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History.

When Rep. Bachus first championed debt relief in Congress, his colleagues didn’t “get it”.

“People on both sides of the aisle told me there was no political upside to this,” Bachus said in an interview at the time. Now, those same skeptics see just how forward thinking he was – not only has debt cancellation reduced poverty, improved health care and education, but it has also decreased poor countries dependency on foreign aid. This year, Rep. Bachus, in a bi-partisan effort with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), introduced the Jubilee Act of 2007 – legislation that will further extend debt cancellation to the world’s poorest countries without imposing harmful economic reforms.

Earlier this year, Rep. Bachus joined Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) to also introduce the Education for All Act. Rep. Bachus recognizes the importance of education in ending the cycle of poverty and further sees education as “an investment in international security.” “Young people who are reading books aren’t building bombs,” Bachus said in an interview with the Birmingham News. He added, “The US has always succeeded because of the strength of our ideas. We need to fill the vacuum with a message of hope, not hate, in these countries. We can’t play educator to the world, but we can certainly come closer than being the policeman to the world.”

We ended the meeting by briefing Rep. Bachus on both the Growth Act and the Child Survival Act. He enthusiastically received the information and felt confident that these were both measures he could support. He promised an answer within the week!

When ONE members asked how we could help him, Rep. Bachus pointed out that letters to the editor are very effective. A point well taken and often heeded. For example, when ONE members were unable to get an in-district meeting with our senators during the August recess to discuss the Farm Bill, we wrote letters to the editor of the Birmingham News publicly stating our position. Even without a face-to-face visit with our senators, local ONE Campaigners were able to effectively communicate our viewpoint.

Many thanks to Rep. Bachus for his continued leadership.

[People in picture are: John Derrick, Elaine VanCleave, Rep. Spencer Bachus, Suzanne Martin, Mark Connell]