Smart Power And Hillary's Travels, End Congo Violence
May 25, 2010
SUPPORT HILLARY’S STATE DEPARTMENT BUDGET – CONTACT YOUR SENATORS NOW!
As Hillary works around the world to represent the United States and strengthen alliances, Congress is now considering the International Affairs budget, which funds State Department operations: programs like reducing maternal mortality and funding; relief and reconstruction in Haiti; and supporting American diplomacy and development. These programs are at the heart of No Limits' international agenda: building a safer, more secure world through strengthening alliances, and a better future for every child.
The State Department budget is now up for a vote in Congress, and a bi-partisan group of Senators is asking colleagues to ensure it is fully funded. Will you ask your Senators to sign?
At No Limits, we understand that building and strengthening alliances with other nations means America has more allies to work with us against international threats. Rebuilding these relations requires the sustained, effective use of the full range of America’s assets: diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal and cultural.
That’s the “smart power” Hillary has talked about – let’s make sure she has the resources she needs!
Please email or write your Senators and ask them to sign on to the Kerry-Lugar-Durbin-Bond-Feinstein letter in support of the International Affairs budget; get contact information here:
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You know the terrible problem of rape and other forms of violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo – a civil war fueled and paid for by trade in so-called "conflict minerals." These minerals, like tantalum, tin, and tungsten, are key components in our cell phones, laptops, and digital cameras.
"Every time someone uses a certain type of cell phone, they are using minerals that come right out of eastern Congo." Hillary said when she traveled to the Congo last year: "I think the international community must start looking at steps we can take to try to prevent the mineral wealth from the DRC ending up in the hands of those who fund the violence here."
Now, a provision of the financial reform bill passed by the Senate aims to do just that, requiring publicly traded companies that use certain minerals to file reports annually with the Securities and Exchange Commission, certifying where the minerals originated. It also requires them to report what steps the company took to ensure that the purchase of these minerals did not benefit armed groups in Africa.
More action could be coming: A bill offered in the House by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) and in the Senate by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) would stop companies from importing conflict minerals into the United States. The House Foreign Relations Committee is holding a hearing today, May 25th, to spotlight the problem of conflict minerals. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson and the ENOUGH Projects' Co-Founder John Prendergast are testifying. We'll have a report of the hearing soon.
For more information about the violence in the Congo, see this video by the ENOUGH Project:
 Click to watch the video by the ENOUGH Project. |
BADLY NEEDED FINANCIAL REFORM MOVES FORWARD
Last week, the United States Senate passed the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 – a bill to strengthen our financial system, protect consumers, and reign in the reckless behavior that caused the financial crisis. The bill:
• Ends “too big to fail” so that troubled companies, regardless of their size, can be liquidated at no taxpayer expense;
• Establishes significant consumer protection, including a Consumer Protection Bureau that will oversee virtually every consumer financial product;
• Increases coordination among federal agencies to identify and reduce the risks to our financial system; and
• Regulates derivatives, the complex financial instruments that were at the center of the 2008 financial crisis.
House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd will now lead a conference committee meeting to reconcile the Senate bill and the House bill, passed late last year. Chairman Frank said “[t]he two bills are very similar, and the House is ready to go to conference to work out the remaining issues.”
Public support has been essential to every step of this process, fighting back against the scare tactics and misinformation of those trying to stop real financial reform. We’ll keep watching!
NO LIMITS GOES TO A PARTY
Human Rights Chair Allida Black hosted a successful house party for No Limits at her home in Virginia last week, featuring President Ann Lewis and Vice President Leecia Eve. We spoke about the No Limits agenda – making a difference here at home, and supporting Hillary’s leadership around the world – and urged guests to become members themselves, and spread the word to their friends.
No Limits members make our work possible – and they participate in special, members-only programs like our recent conference call with Senator Barbara Mikulski. Click here to join us!
HILLARY SPEAKS AT CARE
Addressing CARE’s 2010 National Conference and Convention, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke of her commitment to its mission – and why work such as CARE’s is so important to America’s interests:
“… we care about people who work from sunup to sundown to secure the basics of a healthy life, about the repercussions of a global economic system that traps more than a billion people in poverty – most of them women and children – about the future of families and communities in the aftermath of natural disasters that in one instant can erase years, even decades, of progress."
“Like CARE, we believe that by creating the conditions in which families and communities thrive, we can promote stability, opportunity, and progress far beyond any one community and even one country. And we can foster a new set of capable partners to help us meet global threats, from climate change to nuclear nonproliferation to terrorism.”
Watch the video and read the speech here:
 Click to watch the CARE video. |
CONGRATULATIONS, KAKENYA!
Kakenya Ntaiya, one of our panelists at our 2009 conference, has been named a 2010 Emerging Explorer by National Geographic; she is one of only 14 awardees. She is recognized because she has spent her adult life building a school to create educational opportunities for girls in her hometown of Maasai, Kenya.
"I'm helping girls who cannot speak for themselves. Why should they go through the hardships I endured? They’ll be stepping on my shoulders to move up the ladder - they’re not going to start on the bottom."
The Kakenya Center for Excellence is a primary boarding school, focused on serving the most underprivileged girls in Maasai. Upon opening, it served 32 students, and she hopes to increase that to 150 students. Kakenya is an example of how one person can change the lives of many.
"I want this school not only to empower Kenya’s girls, but also their mothers, fathers, and entire villages."
THE LAST WORD
“The United States views the decriminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity as integral to the protection of human rights in Malawi and elsewhere around the world.”
- Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley, condemning the conviction of two men in Malawi to fourteen years in prison with hard labor for choosing to live in a committed relationship.
