Dear Colleague,
In April we celebrated a key victory when the House of Representatives passed the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation – many thanks to you all for the persistent calls and letters to your representatives. We stand within reach of total victory if we can push the U.S. Senate to pass the Senate version of this historic legislation (Jubilee Act (S 2166)).
The Jubilee Act is a huge step towards breaking the chocking chains of debt that engender endemic poverty in Africa and other impoverished regions of the regions of the world. In addition to expanding debt cancellation to an additional 24 impoverished nations that commit to use the resources to fight poverty, the Jubilee Act also undertakes to reign in the harmful lending practices of the IMF, World Bank and other international financial institutions complicit in Africa’s debt crisis.
The good news is that the Jubilee Act already has bi-partisan support from more than half the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Good as this is, the bill can only move forward if more Senators sign on as co-sponsors.
If you live in Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New York or Oregon – both your Senators have already signed on to the Jubilee Act. You can still get involved by telling your friends and family who live outside these states to ask their Senators to co-sponsor the Jubilee Act.
To find out who your Senator is, go to www.senate.gov. To see if any of your Senators is already a co-sponsor, go to list of co-sponsors.
If your Senator is not yet a co-sponsor please write today and ask them to support the Jubilee Act (S 2166).
Cancel the Debt! End Global Apartheid!
Sincerely,
Staff @ Africa Action