House Passes Jubilee Debt Relief, Battle Shifts to Senate

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/04/18/house-passes-jubilee-debt-relief-battle-shifts-to-senate/

by James Parks, Apr 18, 2008

The effort to bring debt relief to poor countries now moves to the U.S. Senate after the House of Representatives approved legislation that would cancel the debt of several poor nations. If enacted, the countries that receive the relief must use the money to provide their citizens desperately needed resources—such as health care, education and safe drinking water.

The Jubilee Act (H.R. 2634), which passed the House on April 16 with a bipartisan margin of 285-132, instructs the U.S. Treasury Department to negotiate a multilateral agreement to cancel the debt for as many as 24 poor countries. The Senate version of the bill (S. 2166) has 26 co-sponsors. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on the bill April 24. Click here and scroll down the page to find out how to call and urge your senators to support the Jubilee Act.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwcg2xdd5VI


Patricia Rumer, co-chair of Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of 80 unions, community and religious groups, says:

We commend the Congress for its bold step in passing the Jubilee Act and listening to the people of the impoverished nations who have borne the burden of unjust debt for far too long. We hope that House passage will inspire the Senate to move quickly to also pass the Jubilee Act and send it to the president for immediate action.

Some of the world’s most impoverished nations are paying so much in debt service to wealthy nations and institutions such as the World Bank that their governments cannot provide access to clean water, adequate housing or basic health care.

In fact, these nations already have paid back their debts time and again. But skyrocketing interest rates and compound interest make repayment impossible. For example, in 1970–2002, Africa received some $540 billion in loans and paid back $550 billion in principal and interest. Yet today, Africa remains burdened by a debt of $295 billion.

Dr. Adabayo Adedeji of the African Center for Development Strategy says:

Debt is tearing down schools, clinics and hospitals and the effects are no less devastating than war. Experts estimate it would take an annual commitment of $18 billion to reverse the AIDS crisis in Africa that claims 7,000 lives a day. Sub-Saharan Africa, where the AIDS crisis is worst, pays almost $13 billion in debt service to wealthy nations and institutions every year.

FULL story at link.