Wash­ing­ton, DC – The Debt Relief for Earth­quake Recov­ery in Haiti Act (H.R. 4573) authored by Con­gress­woman Max­ine Waters (D-CA) was signed into law by Pres­i­dent Barack Obama Mon­day at the White House. The bill, which would help relieve Haiti of hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars in debt owed to mul­ti­lat­eral insti­tu­tions, recently passed both cham­bers of Con­gress, and is now clas­si­fied as Pub­lic Law No: 111–158.

“The President’s sig­na­ture on this bill is fur­ther indi­ca­tion of the United States’ sup­port for the peo­ple of Haiti,” said Con­gress­woman Waters. “I authored this leg­is­la­tion because Haiti’s immense debt bur­den would have severely impeded the country’s recov­ery efforts. Our gov­ern­ment will work closely with the mul­ti­lat­eral devel­op­ment insti­tu­tions to ensure that they can­cel all of Haiti’s debts owed to them, and that future aid over the next few years is deliv­ered in the form of grants, so that Haiti does not accu­mu­late more debt.”

Pub­lic Law No: 111–158 directs the Sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury to instruct the U.S. Exec­u­tive Direc­tors at the World Bank, the Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund (IMF) and other mul­ti­lat­eral devel­op­ment insti­tu­tions to use the voice, vote, and influ­ence of the United States to do the following:

1. can­cel imme­di­ately and com­pletely all debt owed by Haiti to these insti­tu­tions;
2. sus­pend Haiti’s debt ser­vice pay­ments to the insti­tu­tions until the debt is can­celed com­pletely; and
3. pro­vide addi­tional assis­tance to Haiti in the form of grants so that Haiti does not accu­mu­late addi­tional debt.

Pub­lic Law No: 111–158 also directs the Sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury and the Sec­re­tary of State to use all appro­pri­ate diplo­matic influ­ence to secure the can­cel­la­tion of all remain­ing bilat­eral, mul­ti­lat­eral, and pri­vate cred­i­tor debt owed by Haiti. A Sen­ate amend­ment included in the House bill spec­i­fies that Haiti should receive aid in the form of grants until Feb­ru­ary 1, 2015. After that time, mul­ti­lat­eral devel­op­ment insti­tu­tions may resume aid in the form of new loans.

Con­gress­woman Waters, who serves on the Finan­cial Ser­vices Sub­com­mit­tee on Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Pol­icy and Trade, par­tic­i­pated in a hear­ing today on pro­mot­ing small and micro enter­prise in Haiti.

Con­gress­woman Waters said, “To help Haiti move for­ward, I am focused on mak­ing sure that durable forms of shel­ter con­tinue to be deliv­ered and dis­trib­uted to the mil­lions of sur­vivors liv­ing in the camps for the dis­placed, so that they stay dry and pro­tected from dis­ease dur­ing the impend­ing rainy sea­son. Addi­tion­ally, I will be assist­ing Hait­ian small busi­ness peo­ple and non­govern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions in form­ing part­ner­ships with the United States Agency for Inter­na­tional Devel­op­ment (USAID) so that they have a sub­stan­tive role in the rebuild­ing of their country.”

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