Africa Action (Washington, DC)
8 November 2007
press release
Washington, DC — Today, the House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing on H.R. 2634, the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation of 2007.
Testimony in support of this legislation was provided by Neil Watkins, National Coordinator of Jubilee USA Network, Emira Woods, Board Chair of Africa Action and Co-Director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, Gerald F. Flood, Counselor at the Office of International Justice and Peace, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Aldo Caliari, Director of the Rethinking Bretton Woods Project at the Center of Concern. Africa Action called for the rapid mark-up of the bill and urged the U.S. Congress to support comprehensive debt cancellation and pass the Jubilee Act into law.
“Debt has kept Africa in bondage long after the end of slavery,” said Emira Woods. “This legislation could help break those chains. It won’t solve all of the problems of the world’s poorest countries. But it will give these struggling nations a better chance of building strong, secure and healthy societies.”
Bipartisan support for the Jubilee Act has been building in Congress since it was introduced to the House on June 7. The bill now has eighty-six co-sponsors, including four added this week. The Senate version of the act was introduced on October 16 and already has twelve co-sponsors. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank and other Representatives at today’s hearing expressed their strong support for debt cancellation as a moral imperative and a powerful mechanism to fight global poverty and meet the Millennium Development Goals.
Gerald LeMelle, Executive Director of Africa Action said today “The debt accrued by the dictators of the past from complicit creditors is robbing today’s Africans of basic rights like education and health care. Previous debt relief efforts have yielded impressive results but have not gone far enough. This bill would ensure that the money freed up by debt cancellation goes directly to poverty reduction programs by eliminating unfair conditionalities that limit spending by African governments on social services. Having failed in the past to live up to its commitments to fight global poverty, the U.S. must prioritize debt cancellation to address the urgent needs of African countries unjustly plagued by illegitimate debt.”
The Jubilee Act would expand the number of countries eligible for debt cancellation, eliminate macroeconomic conditions countries must accept in order to receive relief under current initiatives, and calls for the U.S. Treasury to establish transparent frameworks that address the issues of responsible future lending and predatory vulture funds.
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