2009 Budget

Last week, “UNH for ONE” set up tables at the University of New Hampshire and asked their fellow students to sign letters to NH Senator Judd Gregg, asking him for a robust international affairs budget. They collected over 50 letters that I will deliver to Senator Gregg’s Office later today.

“UNH for ONE” is now phone banking on campus to thank NH Senator Sununu for signing onto the “Smith-Feinstein Amendment” and calling Senator Gregg’s Office to ask that he support the amendment that would restore over 2.6 billion dollars to the international affairs budget.

On relatively short notice, “UNH for ONE” was able to spring into action to help save critical funds for the poorest of the poor. Please call your senators today and make sure your name is on ONE’s petition.

-Matthew Bartlett

On Friday, we sent around a petition to the Senate asking them not to slash 4 billion dollars from the international affairs budget. Over the weekend we managed to gather over 54,000 signatures, but if we hope to convince our senators that we can’t roll back the amount we give to the fight against poverty, we’re going to need many more senators to sign on.

If you, or someone you know, hasn’t signed the petition calling on the Senate to restore this vital funding, please sign now and send it to your friends as well.

-Weldon Kennedy

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.

Just a heads up that tomorrow the Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations will be analyzing President Bush’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget request and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

Check back to our Feb 4 post for intel on president’s 2009 budget request.

And see Michael Gerson’s Feb 18 post here on the ONE Blog for more on the MCC.

-Virginia Simmons

Gov. Romney held a town hall meeting in Nashua to finish up Labor Day campaigning in the Granite State. A group of ONE members, including Keith Spano, Elizabeth Laws, and ONE’s Marine Michael, all decked out in ONE Vote ‘08 shirts, attended to make sure that the bottom billion people in the world were represented.

Although we did not get a chance to ask a questions, we made sure that the crowd was well aware of the ONE Campaign by passing out ONE bands and ONE Vote ‘08 literature. Many of the Romney staffers are very supportive of the ONE Campaign and wore their white ONE bands throughout the event.

After Gov. Romney’s speech, we all made our way to the Governor to thank him for talking about the need to reach out to Africa through medical diplomacy and technology. We thanked him for his ideas and he told us that it was good to see us again.

Michael was able to give a ONE band to Ann Romney which she immediately put on, having seen them many times before all across the nation.

It was a long day for many ONE members seeing Sen. Dodd, Sen. Obama, and Gov. Romney at many different settings. But rarely do you get to speak with so many of our nation’s leaders, and potentially the next president of the United States, and we were going to make sure that they heard from the ONE Campaign!

-Matthew Bartlett, ONE Regional Organizer