In the midst of a heated election year, it is easy to forget some of the great accomplishments we have achieved as a nation.
America has led the way in fighting extreme poverty (people living on less than $1.25 a day) and we’ve seen extreme poverty halved in the last 30 years — no small feat. We have seen HIV/AIDS go from being a death sentence to more than 9 million people in Africa now receiving life-saving treatment, up from 50,000 in 2002. That’s nearly as many as the population of Washington and Oregon combined.
I have personally seen how these programs brought life in rural Uganda to otherwise doomed people. We have been able to help people pull themselves out of this evil cycle of poverty for good. And this on less than 1 percent of the federal budget.
However, we must not let down. We can see extreme poverty eradicated by 2030, but to do that we must stay the course. Therefore, I urge U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, to protect this funding in the upcoming federal 2017 budget.
