Thank You Rep. Heinrich for Cosponsoring H.R. 2139

Our thanks to Rep. Martin Heinrich for cosponsoring H.R.2139, The Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009.   

Rep. Heinrich is one of 108 members of the House who had cosponsored this bill as of mid-September.  

Special thanks to Ellen Buelow and Marge Williams, who along with me, met with Rep. Heinrich about this issue.   I also want to thank the 16 churches in the First Congressional District who participated in this year's Offering of Letters about reforming foreign aid.

This very important initiative would direct the President to develop and implement a comprehensive national strategy to further our country's foreign policy objective of promoting global development.  Among other things, this bill would promote is to consolidate foreign aid efforts, which would ensure that more of the money devoted to this purpose actually goes to the people who need it.

It was almost a year and a half ago that I asked the four candidates runing for the Democratic nomination for the First Congressional District, including Heinrich, what their position was on addressing global poverty.  Here's what Candidate Heinrich said:

I think it's just a matter of priorities. We need to realize that when we do invest in developing nations and in reducing poverty, that has such an enormous impact on how people feel about us as a nation.

(See) where we’ve put ourselves in the past seven or eight years, basically destroyed generations worth of goodwill worldwide.

A dollar spent on education, a dollar spent on finding ways for people to provide themselves…these are things that come back to us in terms of less money spent on military engagements, less money spent on all kinds of other problems...It's just like in the United States, where we realize that for every dollar spent on things like prevention, you typically save yourself five, six, seven dollars down the line. It's the same worldwide. And it just hasn't been a priority of the last administration in Washington.

Read all their responses
 
 (Pictured above is Rep. Heinrich showing off his ONE white band, symbolizing support for the Millennium Development Goals)