We’ve got Menendez on our side

March 18th, 2008 at 7:27 pm

On Monday the luck of the Irish was with the ONE Campaign. New Jersey members of ONE and our partner organization CARE met with Senator Robert Menendez to discuss his support for several anti-poverty bills going through Congress. For my part in the meeting I thanked the Senator for co-sponsoring and voting for the Biden/Lugar amendment to the FY09 International Affairs Budget which, as many of you might know, restored $4.1 billion dollars to the bill that will help fight malnutrition, poor sanitation, and illiteracy.

Yet we assured the Senator that as his constituents we were not satisfied with the fact that many essential commitments such as funding for maternal and child health programs attracted fewer resources than were justified. To our delight Senator Menendez not only matched our enthusiasm about these issues, but raised us to engage and education more citizens in the vast inequality that exists in our world. Only then, he stated, will all members of the New Jersey delegation to Congress be commanded by voters to take on the challenges of extreme poverty and disease.

Well Senator, we are much closer to that reality than you might think as New Jersey has 10 college campuses engaged in the Campus Challenge, several community based ONE groups, and an ever growing network of voters ready to call and write you to take action against AIDS, hunger, education, and all ONE issues.

Call or write your senator today to thank them for their support of the International Affairs Budget or stress why further funding is needed (report it here).