Ask Your Representative:
Vote NO on the Lewis Amendment

Representative Jerry Lewis (R-CA), the ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, is offering an amendment to the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations bill cutting $506 million from U.S. multilateral contributions -- funding critical to our commitment to 100% debt cancellation for the world’s poorest countries, and our support for development priorities including health, education, agriculture, microfinance, business development and more.

We only have hours, maybe minutes, before the vote on this potentially devastating amendment. Please make your call immediately.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR CALLING YOUR REPRESENTATIVE

If you haven't received a direct phone number in an email from ONE, call the House of Representatives switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected with your representative. Then:

1. Introduce yourself to the staff member who answers, and tell him/her you are a constituent and a ONE member.

2. Say you want your representative to vote NO on the Lewis Amendment to the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations bill.

3. Elaborate. You can add more from the talking points, below.

4. Say thanks. When you're finished, thank the staff member for his or her time and for passing along your concerns.

5. Report your call. Please let us know how your call went using the reporting tool, to the right.

TALKING POINTS

1. Support for multilateral institutions is a key component of our foreign policy, and improving our image in the world. Working through multilaterals, we leverage more from other countries to share the burden of foreign aid.

2. Our funding for multilateral institutions is money well spent. The World Bank's International Development Association supports important programs, including debt cancellation, health, education, agriculture, microfinance, business development and more, all under a strong, performance-based criteria to make a real, measurable difference in the fight against global poverty.

3. We must keep our commitment to our 2005 deal for 100% debt cancellation for the world’s poorest countries, and that depends upon preserving the President’s request for IDA in 2010.