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