ALERTS

Urge Senators to Support Senate Version of the Jubilee Act, to Relieve the Debt of Poor Countries!

REASON FOR THIS ALERT: Last week during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit, the House of Representatives passed the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation of 2007 (H.R. 2634) with strong bipartisan support. On Thursday, April 24, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will have a hearing on debt relief before beginning a review of the Senate version of the bill (S. 2166). The Jubilee Act represents an essential next step in alleviating the burdens of debt that plague many developing countries.
 
TAKE ACTION NOW! If your Senators are not already cosponsors of the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation of 2007 (S. 2166), urge them to become cosponsors today. If they have already signed  as cosponsors, thank them for their sponsorship of this important legislation. To find out whether your Senators are cosponsors, see the list on the next page.
 
BACKGROUND: While major progress has been made in reducing poor country debt, a substantial number of the poorest countries continue to shoulder heavy debt burdens that draw precious government resources away from critical investments in health care, education, water and other sectors necessary to improve lives.
 
Many poor countries have seen their debts reduced through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative that was adopted in 1996 and expanded in 1999 in response to successful advocacy by the global Jubilee 2000 movement, in which the Catholic Church played a major role. In the succeeding years, it became apparent that
further efforts were required, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has continued to make important contributions to the debt cancellation effort that offers new hope to some of the world’s poorest and most forgotten people. USCCB strongly supported the new debt relief program called the Multilateral Debt Relief
Initiative (MDRI) that was approved under U.S. leadership in 2005. This provided major new debt cancellation for HIPC countries. Also, in 2007, USCCB supported and encouraged the expansion of MDRI to include cancellation of debt owed to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) by Latin American and Caribbean HIPC countries.
Nevertheless, more than twenty very poor countries still are unable to benefit from HIPC or MDRI debt relief. 
 
FINISHING THE JOB: Now that the Jubilee Act was passed by the House of Representatives on April 16, it must also be approved by the Senate. The Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation of 2007 (S. 2166), will be discussed during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reviewed subsequently by the Foreign Relations Committee, and then must be sent to the Senate floor for a vote.  If passed in its current form, the legislation would extend debt cancellation to virtually all very poor countries that have, or develop, financial management systems to assure that debt relief savings are used to reduce poverty.
 
ACTION REQUESTED: Encourage your Senators to become cosponsors of the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation of 2007 (S. 2166), if they have not already, and thank Senators who are current cosponsors for their support.  A list of Senators who are cosponsors is provided below. 
 
RESOURCES: See action alerts and letters on the Catholic Campaign Against Global Poverty website of USCCB and CRS at www.usccb.org/globalpoverty. For more information contact: Gerry Flood, 202-541-3167 (phone), 202- 541-3339 (fax); gflood@usccb.org; and Fr. Andrew Small, OMI, 202-541-3153 (phone);asmall@usccb.org. 

 Sponsor:  
Sen Casey, Robert P., Jr. [PA]
 
Co-Sponsors:
Sen Biden, Joseph R., Jr. [DE]  
Sen Boxer, Barbara [CA]  
Sen Brown, Sherrod [OH]  
Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY]  
Sen Coleman, Norm [MN]  
Sen Collins, Susan M. [ME]  
Sen Dodd, Christopher J. [CT]  
Sen Durbin, Richard [IL]  
Sen Feingold, Russell D. [WI]  
Sen Hagel, Chuck [NE]  
Sen Isakson, Johnny [GA]  
Sen Kerry, John F. [MA]  
Sen Klobuchar, Amy [MN]  
Sen Leahy, Patrick J. [VT]  
Sen Lieberman, Joseph I. [CT]  
Sen Lugar, Richard G. [IN]  
Sen McCaskill, Claire [MO]  
Sen Menendez, Robert [NJ]  
Sen Mikulski, Barbara A. [MD]  
Sen Obama, Barack [IL]  
Sen Schumer, Charles E. [NY]  
Sen Smith, Gordon H. [OR]  
Sen Snowe, Olympia J. [ME]  
Sen Sununu, John E. [NH]  
Sen Wyden, Ron [OR]  
 
All Senators listed here and those not listed here can be reached by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202)224- 3121.

  FARM BILL ACTION ALERT

 April 11, 2008  Act Now Please contact your Representative and Senators (for contact information go to www.house.gov and www.senate.gov), and let them know that there is still time for important reform. The food and farm policies of the United States must reflect our values of a just society that cares about the future of rural communities and about our brothers and sisters abroad whose basic subsistence depends on farming. Urge him or her to: 

 • Support the new Dorgan-Grassley payment limits compromise which targets farm supports to active farmers and caps direct payments as market prices for commodities rise. The savings generated from such targeting of our farm supports would support such priorities as needed improvements in nutrition, conservation and rural development. By reducing costs, the proposal may help break the current budget impasse about funding levels.  

• Support the House-passed funding level of $11.5 billion in new ten-year nutrition funding to make needed investments in the Food Stamp Program and for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and to maintain the flexibility in the Food Stamp Program to allow local charitable organizations to do outreach to increase participation in this vital program. The new ten-year investment would allow the Food Stamp Program's standard deduction and minimum benefit to be indexed for inflation and the cap on dependent care to be lifted so that more families who are poor and working can have access to adequate food assistance.  

 • Support food security aid provisions that (1) establish a “safebox” in the Senate-passed version of the trade section that sets aside without a waiver $600 million of PL 480 Title II resources for development to aid those suffering from chronic hunger), (2) allow needed flexibility in using cash or commodities in fighting hunger abroad, and (3) mandate a $25 million pilot program for the purchase of food locally or regionally from resident farmers.   Background Both the House and Senate versions of the Farm bill include critical investments in nutrition, international food aid and conservation initiatives that the Catholic community strongly supports. However, neither version has resulted in meaningful reform of farm supports so that small and moderate-sized family farmers and ranchers can better benefit from farm programs and farmers in developing countries are not harmed by trade distorting subsidies.   

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the National Catholic Rural Life Conference (NCRLC), Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) continue  to  work closely  together to support policies in the 2007 Farm bill that support rural communities and family farms; strengthen and expand domestic anti-hunger programs; promote conservation and good stewardship of the land; ensure safe living and working conditions for farmworkers; promote fairness for farmers in developing countries; and provide food security aid efficiently and effectively to hungry people worldwide.   The Catholic community has a strong unified voice in support of both domestic and international nutrition programs: the Food Stamp Program; The Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP); and improvements in food aid provisions. Given the rise in food prices, strong funding levels to address hunger both domestically and internationally is more important today then ever.   Pressing for Reform Under the current Farm bill, the top ten percent of farm payment recipients receive about 70 percent of the overall benefits of our farm supports. Such a system puts smaller-scale farm and ranch operations here in the United States at a disadvantage and distorts the local and global marketplace, especially to the detriment of poor farmers in developing countries.  The current versions of the Farm bill do not address the concentration of farm payments to the wealthiest or the repercussions of such policy. True reform will spread the benefits of payments in farm programs more equitably to family farmers actively engaged in farming.   Senators Dorgan (D-ND) and Grassley (R-IA) have proposed a 4-point compromise to tighten payment limitations as market prices for particular commodities rise and by targeting payments to those “actively engaged” in farming. The new payment limits compromise would generate $2 billion in savings over ten years to be reinvested in nutrition, conservation and rural development programs.   USCCB POSITION: The Catholic bishops of the United States have stated that "the primary goals of agricultural policies should be providing food for all people and reducing poverty among farmers and farmworkers in this country and abroad." (For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food: Catholic Reflections on Food, Farmers and Farmworkers).  FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: To read Catholic community joint letters and action alerts, go to:  http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/agric.shtml  CONTACT INFORMATION: Roxana Barillas at USCCB (202) 541-3445, rbarillas@usccb.org; Fr. Andrew Small OMI at USCCB (202) 541-3153, asmall@usccb.org; Bob Gronski at NCRLC (515) 270-2634, ncrlcg@mchsi.com, or Brendan Cavanagh at CRS (410) 951-7462, cavanag@crs.org, Lucreda Cobbs at Catholic Charities USA, (703) 236-6243, lcobbs@catholiccharitiesusa.org.