Sen. Jeff Bingaman Cosponsors Global Poverty Act

New Mexicans had written more than 1,000 letters to our two senators as part of Bread for the World's 2008 Offering of Letters. The last line of our letter had a simple request for Sen. Jeff Bingaman and Sen. Pete Domenici: Please cosponsor S2433

Here's the description in Thomas, the legislative search engine for the Library of Congress
S2433
A bill to require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.

I can't help but think that the 509 letters that were sent to Sen. Bingaman may have had some influence in his decision to become the 19th sponsor of S2433 Click here to see full list of sponsors.

The companion bill in the House was HR1302, which was approved by a voice vote in September 2007. The House bill had 84 cosponsors, including Rep. Tom Udall.

So what's next? Our task is to convince Sen. Pete Domenici to become the 20th cosponsor of the S2433. After all, he's received 546 letters from New Mexicans this year. Even though the majority of cosponsors are Democrats, there are some powerful Republicans like Sen. Richard Lugar and Sen. Chuck Hagel backing this legislation.