May 12th, 2009 11:43 AM UTC
By Christopher Berg
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 Last Thursday afternoon in Vancouver, WA, three ONE volunteers met with Theresa Wagner, SW Washington Director for Senator Patty Murray. The meeting focused on strengthening ONE’s relationship with the 17-year veteran of the Senate and member of the very important Appropriations Committee. ONE volunteer, Jeff Hollett, talked about ONE’s activity in the area and the three discussed how they became passionate about advocating for global poverty reduction.
After the introductions, they got down to business and asked Senator Murray to check in with the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye, and ask him to allocate $51.7 billion to the Foreign Operations Bill during the 302(b) process. They also thanked Senator Murray for her past work to expand treatment and care for people affected by HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and also for her leadership in calling for an increase in personnel at USAID.
The volunteers reported back saying that the meeting was a resounding success!
Theresa mentioned that Senator Murray and Senator Inouye agree on most issues and she took notes regarding the request for $51.7 billion for the Foreign Operations Bill. She seems interested and understood the request. I believe she will pass that request on!
–ONE Member, Evan Hull
Big thanks to Jeff Hollett, Evan Hull and Donna Van Horn!
-Christopher Berg
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Apr 13th, 2009 2:12 PM UTC
By Christopher Berg
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Check out this great update from some ONE members in Tennessee. A huge thanks to Claire Lovelace, Patte Earley and Jim Rugh for doing a great job representing ONE!
-Chris Berg
On Thursday, April 9, a couple ONE members and I from Tennessee’s First District met with our Congressman, Representative Phil Roe. He and his staff were very cordial.
We asked the Congressman to support a robust increase in the International Affairs Budget and specifically requested that he ask the Ranking Republican on the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, Rep. Kay Granger, to work for full funding for the 302B allocation for the Foreign Affairs Budget. Congressman Roe committed to doing that.
From our conversation, we gathered that Congressman Roe had been greatly impressed by the African heads of state that spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast and thanked President Bush for the PEPFAR funds that helped their countries so much. When he mentioned the Prayer Breakfast, we presented him with a copy of the book, On the Move, which contains Bono’s speech from the 2006 Prayer Breakfast. Coincidentally, my friend Patte and I attend the same church as Congressman Roe and our pastor used information from On the Move in a Lenten sermon to inspire us to action on issues related to poverty.
At the end of our meeting, we thanked the Congressman for his time and posed for a picture with him underneath the seal of his office.
-Claire Lovelace, ONE Member
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Apr 9th, 2009 3:28 PM UTC
By Christopher Berg
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 Perhaps no one person in the United States holds more influence in deciding the fate of funding for the International Affairs Budget than 47 year veteran of the United States Congress, Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii. Senator Inouye is the Chairman of the powerful Committee on Appropriations, which appropriates the funds for all of ONE’s priorities including global health, child survival, basic education, debt relief, etc.
On Tuesday afternoon, on sunny Oahu Island, ONE Members Kimmie Palpallatoc, Linda Birn and Heidi Lum joined forces with ONE Legislative Director, Tom Hart, to meet with Senator Inouye’s District Legislative Assistant, Barbara Sakamoto, to ask that Senator Inouye uphold the Kerry-Lugar Amendment and support a 4 billion dollar increase to the Foreign Operations Bill.
The meeting was a resounding success. All three ONE Members related their stories of how they came to be passionate about fighting extreme global poverty and preventable disease. They talked about the need to do more to alleviate the effects of the current economic crisis on the world’s bottom billion that live on less than one dollar a day, and discussed how it is in America’s national security interest to lift people out of extreme poverty around the world.
Ms. Sakamoto expressed the Senator’s general support and confirmed how important it is for Senator Inouye to hear the voices of local Hawaiians on these important issues.
A big MAHALO to Kimmie, Linda and Heidi for being a voice for the world’s poorest people!
-Christopher Berg, ONE Field Coordinator
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