WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Joseph Biden and a bipartisan coalition of senators are leading the fight to restore $4.1 billion in federal funds targeted to fight poverty and global disease.

The funding was cut last week, on the eve of the full Senate considering next year’s budget plan.

“It takes compassion, courage and conviction to fight for the world’s poorest people. It takes an understanding that America’s true strength is defined by our heart and not just by our military. Senator Biden understands that by saving the lives of the poorest people on earth today, we secure America’s future tomorrow,” ONE President and CEO David Lane said.

Senator Biden, D-Del., is working with Senators Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Gordon Smith, R-Ore., Richard Durbin, D-Ill., John Sununu, R-N.H., Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Norm Coleman, R-Minn., on a proposal to restore the $4.1 billion cut. The proposal could be up for a vote as early as Thursday.

“Budgets are written through a series of choices, and the choices have consequences. Tomorrow, senators have a choice that can mean life or death for millions of people around the globe,” Lane said.

As it stands now, the budget proposal in the Senate cuts billions of dollars from the federal spending blueprint, offered in February by President Bush, to fight extreme poverty and preventable diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. That cut jeopardizes the progress that America has brought to the developing world to fight the spread of these diseases, while combating the central cause – extreme poverty where people struggle to survive on less than $1 a day.

“The United States has long been committed to helping the poorest people on this earth who are struggling to survive brutal, suffocating poverty and entirely preventable diseases. Now is not the time to roll back that commitment, yet, unless a major change is made, that is exactly what the Senate budget would do,” Lane said.

Tens of thousands of people started calling all senators’ Capitol offices today in support of Biden’s work. An online petition drive to back restoration of the funding, launched on Friday, has already attracted 76,900 signatures.

“America has a moral tradition of helping those people living in the world’s worst conditions. Imagine worrying whether the mosquito that bit your son is carrying malaria, or whether the glass of water your daughter drank is filled with parasites that may kill her. It seems beyond possibility in this 21st century, but those are the lives that America is trying to save. Those are the lives placed in jeopardy by this budget cut,” Lane said.

ONE is a grassroots advocacy effort of millions of people, rallying together to press government leaders to fight the emergency of extreme poverty and preventable global disease.   For more information, visit www.ONE.org.