The Jubilee Act passed the Senate Foreign Relations committee yesterday. Next it would have to be considered and passed by the full Senate before it could go to the President and be signed into law.
The lack of affordable food has caused riots and political turmoil. While some Haitians are reportedly eating dirt to quell their hunger, their government is forced to pay almost $1 million each week in debt service to the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, both wealthy banks that were supposedly established to fight poverty.
The finance ministers of the G8 countries — the world’s richest nations — meet on June 13 and 14 in Japan to discuss the food crisis. By cancelling debts they could help alleviate the suffering of Haiti and other affected countries.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. will be attending the G8 meeting. Please sign Jubilee USA’s petition to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. to urge him to support accelerated debt cancellation for Haiti and in the meantime an immediate moratorium on the country’s debt service payments at this meeting. Jubilee USA will deliver this petition before he leaves on Wednesday, June 11.
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.
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
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.
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.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
