Friends,

Thanks to your efforts, as dawn broke in Washington, we won relief and recovery funds for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. 

For 6 months, you generated thousands of e-mails, phone calls and petitions to Congress and the White House. You met with your Members of Congress and organized 130 prayers services across the country for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. 

You asked Congress and the White House and they listened.

The new law includes $11 billion in recovery aid for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. There is over $2 billion to rebuild Puerto Rico's power grid. There are rules in place to ensure that Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands can rebuild to withstand future storms. In addition, you campaigned for two years continually for Medicaid funding to protect Puerto Rico's poor and help Puerto Rico respond to its debt crisis. Your efforts secured nearly $5 billion in funds. The program was within weeks of running out of money and now has funding for years.

We are grateful that Congress and the White House worked with us to move forward relief. We also need to ask Congress to do more. 

Please join us as we thank Congress for moving forward relief for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Join us as we invite Congress to do even more. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands will need more recovery aid to fully rebuild. The US citizens on the islands still need to be able to access the same levels of healthcare and child tax benefits that US citizens can access in the States. Continuing to win these policies is essential to ending the debt crisis that continue in the post-hurricane world on the islands.

In the summer of 2015, Puerto Rico's religious leaders alerted the world to a financial crisis devastating their islands and harming the poor. In the years that followed Puerto Rico's Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez and Bible Society Head Reverend Heriberto Martinez continued to call for debt relief and for Congress to enact a fix to Medicaid for the poor on their island.

We, along with our national religious founders and partners, joined them in their calls. Our work together is not finished.

Together working with two different White Houses and Republican and Democratic leadership, we've achieved a lot. Together, we will do even more. Please join us as we thank Congress for acting and inviting them to do more.

Puerto Rico was ill-prepared before the hurricanes hit because of the island's debt crisis and austerity policies. Before the hurricanes nearly one in two kids lived in poverty. In a post-hurricane world, hundreds of thousands do not have electricity and suicide rates continue to soar. In the coming weeks, our efforts together, will be essential to ending the debt crisis and building a path forward that reduces child poverty and promotes economic growth. 

Thanks for your efforts to make today's incredible success possible.

Eric LeCompte
Executive Director

Twitter: @Eric_LeCompte
www.jubileeusa.org/support-us

    

Friends,

Gratefully,

Lydia C. Andrews
Deputy Director

Twitter: @JubileeUSA
www.jubileeusa.org/support-us

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA was recently featured in El Nuevo Dia speaking on disaster relief for Puerto Rico. Read excerpt below and follow link to full article.

Buscan Incluir una Resolución para Mitigar Desastres en el Presupuesto

By: José A. Delgado

“El Senado debe llevar a votación la asistencia para desastres y reconstrucción para Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes estadounidenses… Es increíble que el Senado haya tardado tanto en actuar”, indicó el director ejecutivo de la coalición religiosa Jubilee USA, Eric LeCompte.

Read more here.

Friends,

In the President’s State of the Union address, he told disaster victims from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands “we are with you, we love you and we will pull through this together.”

Unfortunately Disaster victims from California to Puerto Rico are still waiting for Congress to authorize relief and rebuilding funds. 

The Senate still has not voted on the recovery package for disaster victims. Their next deadline to act is February 9th to avert a government shutdown. Send a message to Congress: the people of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands need relief. 

More than four months has passed since Hurricane Maria landed in Puerto Rico, devastating the island. Much of the island is still without power, hospitals lack supplies and personnel to adequately care for the sick. Murders and suicides are at record levels.

The effects of the storm are heartbreaking in the US Virgin Islands, where power is still not completely restored and many homes and buildings are still without roofs. These islands will not be able to withstand the next storm if they do not receive the help and aid that many in Washington promised. Hold Congress and the White House to their word by calling on them now to act and provide the relief the islands need. 

Your voice matters. Now is the time to act. Congress must pass another spending bill before February 9th to keep the government open. Send a message to Congress for hurricane victims in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

We know that the pressure we’ve been putting on Congress is having an effect, but we need your help. Please act now and share this message with your friends and family.

Gratefully,

Kate Zeller
Campaigns Director

Twitter: @JubileeUSA
www.jubileeusa.org/support-us

    

As Congress works to avoid another government shutdown, a crucial part of the debate is the funding for relief and recovery aid desperately needed for disaster victims in Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Florida, Texas and California.

Republican and Democratic leadership have told Jubilee USA that your phone calls and messages for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are making a BIG difference. Please act now.

Hurricane victims in Puerto and the US Virgin Islands are suffering as Congress debates a government shutdown. Please send a message to your Senators and Representative and tell them Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands needs recovery funding to rebuild to withstand the next storm. Let Congress know that Puerto Rico needs debt relief. Tell them that US Citizens living in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands should be able to receive the same level of access to Medicaid, Medicare and child tax benefits that citizens can access who live in the States.

Because of the pressure we put on Congress in recent weeks, we stripped the final Congress tax package of an "excise" tax on Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Our collective action makes a big difference.

Send a message to Congress now. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands need recovery funding to rebuild to withstand the next storm. Tell them Puerto Rico needs debt relief. US Citizens living in Puerto Rico should be able to access Medicaid, Medicare and child tax benefits that citizens can access who live in the States.‎

At the end of 2017, Jubilee USA and our partners hosted a prayer service in Congress for Puerto Rico. Supporting and participating groups included the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, United Church of Christ, Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, Franciscan Action Network, the National Association of Evangelicals, Muslim Public Affairs Council and Islamic Relief. During the prayer service, Puerto Rico's Archbishop Roberto González Nieves reflected, "Puerto Rico desperately needs a complete debt relief, funding for rebuilding, and equal access to Medicare, Medicaid and child tax benefit funding. [...] Today we pray with the persistence and tenacity of the widow of the gospel; we pray full of hope that the miracle of compassion, openness toward and solidarity with Puerto Rico may come true."

Your calls and messages are urgently needed as Jubilee USA and our partners continue to walk the halls of Congress. Together we can win the aid and relief Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands desperately needs.

Please click on this link and send a message to your Members of Congress now.

Thanks for taking action,

Eric LeCompte
Executive Director

Eric Lecompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA, was recently quoted in The World Weekly on the need for debt forgiveness in Puerto Rico. Read excerpt below and follow link to full article.

America's forgotten crisis

By: Alex Izza 

Proposals are flying around for how to rejuvenate the island. The Puerto Rican government is looking to modernise its infrastructure to better withstand future storms. Governor Rosselló requested $94 billion in aid from Congress. Indeed, there are wider calls to ease Puerto Rico’s financial decay. “Without debt forgiveness, Puerto Rico will see no economic growth and the island’s future becomes even bleaker,” argues Eric LeCompte, executive director of financial non-profit Jubilee USA Network.

For now, Congress is focusing on allocating Puerto Rico one part of the $81 billion aid bill for disaster-affected areas in the US. It is currently stranded in the Senate. 

Amidst it all, Puerto Rican politicians are taking action. On the back of a pro-statehood result in last year’s referendum, and defying vast constitutional obstacles, this week seven members of Puerto Rico’s ‘shadow’ congressional delegation presented their credentials in Washington DC and demanded to be seated. 

Read more here. 

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA was recently quoted in Value Walk about the need for debt relief for Greece. Read excerpt below and follow link to full article.

As Yields Tank, HSBC Warns Greece Needs More Debt Relief

By: Mark Melin

"The question of Greece pilling up debt and derivatives to an extent that cannot be logically be supported by their economy has been the hot topic that mostly remains unaddressed. Are those who structured the debt at all responsible if it created economic catastrophe?

This notion was put forth by those who advocated debt relief for Greece, including Eric LeCompte, a UN debt relief consultant and executive director at Jubilee USA Network.

'Greece isn’t out of the woods yet,' he told ValueWalk Thursday. 'If we really want Greece to get out of its challenges, this requires debt relief.'

Debt relief has been the third rail of the Greek negotiations. While some advocated flat out debt forgiveness, as was done in 1953 through the London Agreement that forgave Germany a significant amount of its war debt, LeCompte points to more structural relief.

With 80% debt held by the Eurozone, he points to extending maturity and reducing real payments and creating triggers in a payment system that is relative to the ability of the sovereign nation to pay. 'A successful Greece means a successful EU,' he said, noting that doesn’t mean a debt write off is required as such, but rather accommodation."

Read more here.

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA was recently quoted in The Tablet speaking on the urgent need for a disaster relief package for Puerto Rico when the Government resumes. Read excerpt below and follow link to full article.

Puerto Rico aid package falls foul of party bickering

By: Michael Sean Winters

“We believe Congress will take on all of these issues as soon as they come back to Washington,” said Eric LeCompte, executive director of JubileeUSA which has been working closely with religious leaders in Puerto Rico. This month, Congress must pass legislation to keep the Government open and it is hoped the disaster relief package will be part of that legislation.

Read more here.