Hastings Amendment to the Jubilee Act Passes the House

The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed an amendment on April 16, 2008 authored by U.S. Representative Alcee L. Hastings (D-Miramar) calling for the cancellation of Haiti’s international debt. Representative Hastings offered his amendment to H.R. 2634, the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation of 2008. The bill directs the Secretary of the Treasury to work with international financial institutions to provide debt cancellation to low-income countries.

The amendment authorizes U.S. Treasury to:

• Expedite the cancellation of Haiti’s debts to the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and other multilateral financial institutions, and
• Urge an immediate suspension of debt service payments from Haiti.

Download the Hastings Amendment (PDF)

Recent headlines remind us of Haitians eating cookies made of salt, butter and dirt, because they cannot afford food.

While Haitians are forced to eat dirt, their government is forced to send almost $1 million each week in debt service to wealthy banks that were established to fight poverty. Over half of Haiti’s outstanding loans went to dictators like Francois “Papa Doc” and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, who spent the money on fur coats, fast cars and death squads. Haiti’s poor are now repaying the loans, by eating dirt and by foregoing elementary education and basic healthcare.

The International Financial Institutions (IFIs) recognized that Haiti’s debt is unjust when they accepted Haiti into their debt cancellation programs last year. But these programs would only cancel about half of Haiti’s debt, after more waiting (a year or more) and only if Haiti makes changes to its economy that could exacerbate hunger (see Debt Cancellation for Haiti: No Reason for Further Delays, by the Center for Economic Policy Research).