The Global Poverty Act on the Move - Obama
Lobbying Efforts have Renewed Obama’s Global Poverty Act
Rumors have been circulating around Capitol Hill that a few activist groups have renewed their surge and have begun lobbying full force for a bill introduced by presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). The bill has already passed out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee without any public hearings, and it also passed the House earlier this year.
It is important to note that both of these votes were “voice votes,” which was a deliberate strategy of the congressional majority so that no record would be kept of those who voted in favor of this problematic bill.
The Global Poverty Act of 2007 (S. 2433), which currently has 23 Senate cosponsors, would commit the United States to spending 0.7 percent of its gross national product (GNP) on foreign aid, over and above what we already spend. The bill references the United Nations’ Millennium Declaration (from 2000) which calls for countries to dramatically increase aid and sign onto many dangerous treaties, including the International Criminal Court, the Kyoto Protocol, CEDAW, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.