Guthrie Walks the Walk!

Thanks to many of you, as of 12/1/2009 Congressman Brett Guthrie (R) from Kentucky’s 2nd Congressional District is a cosponsor of HR 2139 The Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009. Celebrate your voices being heard, and that a member of Congress acted because you, his constituents, spoke out!

The Story

It was time for classes to start back on the Hill at Western Kentucky University in late August when we met with Representative Brett Guthrie, and introduced him to HR 2139, the Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009. We discussed the legislation and asked for his co-sponsorship, which he seemed pretty sure of at the time, pending reading the full text of the bill when he made it back to DC.

After following up for around a month with his staff, we received a letter from Rep. Guthrie thanking us for showing our support for the legislation, but he was going to wait until it reached the House floor before taking any action. We could have easily turned away and let the issue be, but instead we took it as a call to action.
WKU AID members began calling, writing, emailing, and faxing the Congressman’s DC office as constituents of his 2nd District here in Kentucky, asking him to sign on to HR 2139. We kept planning next steps and ways to get the community and campus involved, hoping to get Rep. Guthrie’s support as a cosponsor, especially on this issue of reforming our outdated foreign assistance practices to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

The afternoon of December 7th I received an excited phone call from Matt Vaughan, my fellow cohort in all of this “change the world” business, in which he built up to the fact that he had just seen on Thomas.gov (The Library of Congress’ Website for Tracking Congress) that as of December 1st, Congressman Brett Guthrie was now a cosponsor of HR 2139. I was ecstatic. Three and ½ months after first meeting with him in his Bowling Green office, and introducing him to this piece of legislation, a member of Congress had acted on our phone calls, faxes, etc., listened to our voices as both constituents and youth, and signed on to a bill in the United States Congress. Talk about empowerment…

We aren’t the leaders of tomorrow, as many call the youth of America. Our voices matter now, and always, throughout life your voice will always be a powerful tool here in the US, and that voice can change things for the better throughout the world. Start acting NOW to make this world a better place for both us and our global brothers and sisters around the world.

Charlie Harris
WKU AID

Info on HR 2139 taken from our original talking points:

1. The law governing U.S. foreign aid policy is out-of-date. It was written in 1961, and the world has changed drastically since then. We need to upgrade our foreign aid laws and policies to tackle today's global challenges and make sure we get the biggest bang for our development bucks.

2. The Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act is a truly bipartisan bill, and integral to upgrading U.S. foreign aid and making our dollars go further in the fight against global poverty, hunger and disease.

3. For development assistance to achieve its full impact, it should be transparent, predictable and delivered in partnership with recipient countries. HR 2139 is a key first step in that direction.

You can read the entire bill for yourself HERE

More info on this Call to Action:

In 1961 Kennedy was president, roughly half of Africa was still under colonial rule, the Beatles were just a bar band in Liverpool and the law governing U.S. foreign aid policy was written. A lot has changed since then and now it’s time for us to Update America’s Foreign Assistance Plan.
The good news is that legislation has been introduced in Congress that would do just that and make sure what little money America does give to help poor countries develop is spent wisely and has the greatest possible impact.