Organizers rally to support Jubilee Act
Roughly 30 demonstrators organized outside of Rep. Brian Bilbray’s Solana Beach office on President’s Day to try to persuade him to support the Jubilee Act, currently being reintroduced to the House of Representatives.
The act calls for the cancellation of the debt of 22 qualifying poor or impoverished countries. This, supporters say, would allow them to pay for education, healthcare and the necessities for a society to grow and prosper.
Pastor Bill Harman, who spoke to the crowd, gave an example that for every $1 an African country receives in development aid, it must pay back $1.50 in interest.
“I saw that as some kind of a structural issue, that there was a hole in the bucket of development,” he said. “We were pouring money into the top and the money we put into the top, more was coming out of the bottom.”
The Jubilee Act was first introduced to the House of Representatives in 2007, passed in April 2008, but expired in the Senate later that year.
Bilbray was not in his Solana Beach office during the demonstration, and it was unclear whether any of his staff was working due to the national holiday. His Washington, D.C., office had not returned a statement by this paper’s press time.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) is the lead sponsor of the Jubilee Act. Demonstrators noted that it has bipartisan support, including that of Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL).
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