Posted: 6/11/04
Lawmakers introduce bill to provide
debt relief to world's poorest nations
By Daniel Burke
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS)–A bipartisan group of legislators has introduced the Jubilee Act in the House of Representatives–a bill that would cancel debts the world's poorest countries owe the International Monetary Fund.
The measure would “bring the simple biblical concept of debt forgiveness into the complicated worlds of politics and finance,” one lawmaker said.
“Five years ago,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., one of the bill's co-sponsors, “the worldwide Jubilee movement reminded Congress that the Lord instructed the people of Israel to celebrate a Jubilee, or year of the Lord, every 50 years.”
According to Leviticus 25, God enjoined Moses to free slaves and forgive debts during a Jubilee year.
The bill was co-sponsored by Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Spencer Bacchus, R-Ala.; Jim Leach, R-Iowa; and Barbara Lee, D-Calif. The lawmakers said debt cancellation was a “moral issue,” and money saved by countries by eliminating their debt could be used for education and the eradication of disease and hunger.
“President George W. Bush often reminds us of the importance that religion plays in his life,” Waters said.
And he “should bring the biblical principals of justice and charity into the boardroom of the IMF,” Waters added.
Members of the Jubilee USA network, a national coalition of religious and secular social-justice groups, welcomed the bill's introduction.
The network “applauded the prophetic action of these five congresspeople who have demonstrated the political, spiritual and moral courage to call for the IMF to do their fair share for debt cancellation,” said Marie Clarke, the national coordinator for the Jubilee USA Network.
Clarke said the group planned to deliver a letter endorsed by hundreds of religious leaders from across the world to the G-8 countries' heads of state. The letter would emphasize the "moral imperative" of debt cancellation, she said.
With Congress' summer recess approaching, it is unclear how far the bill will get in the House, but the Jubilee coalition is excited, nonetheless.
“This is our visionary bill,” said Adam Taylor, executive director of Global Justice and an associate Baptist minister in Washington.
“This is what God's kingdom should look like.”
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