Press Release from Con­gress­woman Max­ine Waters

http://waters.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=169193

She Also Sends a Let­ter to Sec. Gei­th­ner Urg­ing Him to Pro­pel Debt Can­cel­la­tion Efforts

Con­gress­woman Max­ine Waters (D-CA) intro­duced the Debt Relief for Earth­quake Recov­ery in Haiti Act of 2010 (H.R. 4573), leg­is­la­tion to can­cel Haiti’s debt to mul­ti­lat­eral finan­cial insti­tu­tions so that the nation can focus its lim­ited resources on rebuild­ing after the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake and not be bur­dened by pay­ments to the World Bank, Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund (IMF) and other cred­i­tors.  The bill has more than thirty bipar­ti­san cosponsors.

“I’m intro­duc­ing this leg­is­la­tion to can­cel the $709 mil­lion owed by Haiti to the mul­ti­lat­eral finan­cial insti­tu­tions,” said Con­gress­woman Waters. “Con­sid­er­ing the enor­mous toll from the earth­quake, we must ensure that all of Haiti’s remain­ing debt to these insti­tu­tions and other inter­na­tional cred­i­tors is can­celled so that Haiti can make both short– and long-term invest­ments in relief, recov­ery, and development.”

Con­gress­woman Waters’ leg­is­la­tion would require the Trea­sury Depart­ment to use the voice, vote and influ­ence of the United States in mul­ti­lat­eral finan­cial insti­tu­tions to:

1) can­cel imme­di­ately and com­pletely all debts owed by Haiti to such institutions;

2) sus­pend Haiti’s debt ser­vice pay­ments to such insti­tu­tions until such time as the debts are can­celed com­pletely; and

3) pro­vide addi­tional assis­tance to Haiti in the form of grants so that Haiti does not accu­mu­late addi­tional debts.

The bill also requires the Trea­sury Depart­ment to begin imme­di­ate efforts to ensure that other bilat­eral, mul­ti­lat­eral, and pri­vate cred­i­tors can­cel imme­di­ately and com­pletely all debts owed by Haiti to such creditors.

In addi­tion to intro­duc­ing leg­is­la­tion, Con­gress­woman Waters sent a let­ter to Trea­sury Sec­re­tary Tim­o­thy Gei­th­ner urg­ing him to help can­cel Haiti’s debt.  The let­ter was signed by 94 Mem­bers of Con­gress, includ­ing Major­ity Leader Steny Hoyer, Finan­cial Ser­vices Com­mit­tee Chair­man Bar­ney Frank, and For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee Rank­ing Mem­ber Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

“The array of prob­lems that Haiti faces right now is com­pounded by for­eign debt,” said Con­gress­woman Waters. “I am encour­aged by ini­tial state­ments by World Bank Pres­i­dent Robert Zoel­lick and IMF Man­ag­ing Direc­tor Dominique Strauss-Kahn that they are already con­sid­er­ing mea­sures to can­cel Haiti’s debt. I encour­age their prospec­tive debt can­cel­la­tion plans to also include pro­vid­ing grants so that Haiti can begin the ardu­ous process of rebuilding.”

Con­gress­woman Waters has been a long­time advo­cate for Haiti and a lead­ing pro­po­nent of debt can­cel­la­tion for Haiti and other poor coun­tries. Just last year she was instru­men­tal in get­ting the World Bank and the IMF to can­cel $1.2 bil­lion of Haiti’s debt. The Con­gress­woman intro­duced this lat­est leg­is­la­tion fol­low­ing her recent return from Haiti, where she saw the untold lev­els of death, destruc­tion, and des­ti­tu­tion caused by the earth­quake sev­eral weeks ago.

“Haiti had been mak­ing progress since suf­fer­ing exten­sive dam­age by a series of hur­ri­canes in 2008, and last year’s debt can­cel­la­tion helped to move Haiti in the right direc­tion.  Unfor­tu­nately, it seems like one step for­ward, three steps back.  We can­not allow Haiti to bear the addi­tional bur­den of expen­sive debt pay­ments fol­low­ing this most recent tragedy,” said Con­gress­woman Waters.

More infor­ma­tion about work that Con­gress­woman Waters has done related to Haiti can be found here.