Last week I visited Senators Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin’s Des Moines offices to deliver petitions for the ‘Water for the World’ Act signed by Iowans. At Senator Harkin’s office, I met with John Moreland and at Senator Grassley’s, I talked with Erin Kytola and Aaron McKay.

Both offices were familiar with ONE and impressed with the number of Iowans who were supportive of the act. I encouraged them to ask the Senators to co-sponsor the legislation and they said they will gladly be in contact with them about the petition.

-Abbey Moffitt, ONE Member

Last Thursday ONE members met with representatives from the Des Moines offices of Senators Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley to discuss the importance of combating extreme poverty across the globe. The representatives were encouraged to support President Obama’s 1.4 billion dollar request for global agricultural efforts. We also discussed the decline of developmental assistance in agriculture in the last 25 years and how last year’s global food crisis pushed over 40 million people into hunger.

ONE members also told them about the Water for the World Act, which seemed to win praise from everyone at the meeting. At the meeting’s conclusion, the state office reps agreed to jump in for a photo with the ONE members and were open to more meetings in the future!

-Nicholas Webb, IA ONE member

Wednesday night, after reading an article in The Washington Trade Daily about new U.S policies towards improving trade with Africa, I called into the television show “Ask Your Senator” featuring Senator Chuck Grassley (IA) to hear the senator’s opinion on the issue.

The article mentioned how it is essential for Africa to rebound quickly from declining trade flows during this period of economic shortcomings. On Wednesday, the assistant US trade representative for Africa, Florizelle Liser, launched a new initiative to encourage more US investment in Africa. I asked Senator Grassley specifically about what opportunities, especially in trade, he sees for Africa moving forward into the future.

Senator Grassley responded by stating that he has worked twice on free trade bills that encourage investments in Africa by reducing barriers on imports. He believes that this legislation is the framework for future investments in Africa because it gives them the ability to sell their products effectively.

-Abbey Moffitt, Iowa ONE Member

I am a Tweep, that is a member of the Twitter community, and so is Senator Chuck Grassley. Last Friday he attended a very special town hall called a Tweetup, where local tweeps like myself get together. Senator Grassley took questions from the audience on various subjects in front of a huge tv that was a live update of tweets happening about the event. In addition, the tweetup was being broadcast live online where other tweeps who couldn’t attend could watch and participate. This was obviously a very different kind of town hall than Iowa normally has!

I didn’t have a question for the Senator but I did thank him for all he has done in improving trade preference programs. In particular, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has created many economic opportunities for the world’s poorest people in developing countries. Thanks to AGOA, Africa now has over 100,000 new jobs in the export apparel sector.

Overall it was a great and very different event but I am glad I got the opportunity to talk with the Senator and hope that he will continue to support these life saving opportunities for people in the world’s poorest places.

-Libby Crimmings

PS: Be sure to follow ONE on Twitter at “TheONECampaign”!

Yesterday I visited Senator Grassley’s Des Moines office to deliver 484 letter from his constituents encouraging the senator to keep PEPFAR authorization moving through Congress. Specifically the letters ask Senator Grassley to sign the Lugar-Sununu letter to urge Senate Majority and Minority leaders to get PEPFAR reauthorization to the floor of the Senate.

At the office I met with Aaron McKay, Senator Grassley’s Regional Field Director. Aaron had attended our Summer Kick-off event as a representative for Senator Grassley earlier this week. Aaron and I spoke about how this bill would increase funding from $15 billion over the last five years to $50 billion over the next 5 years and directly save millions of lives. He will be in contact with Senator Grassley regarding these letters.

Thank you Iowans for taking the time to write Senator Grassley and encouraging him to support this very important bill, I was proud to deliver the letters on behalf ONE’s Iowa members.

-Libby Crimmings