Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL), with the co-sponsorship of the chairs of the Sudan-South Sudan Caucus, Reps. Michael Capuano (D-MA), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), introduced the South Sudan Peace Promotion and Accountability Act of 2015 (H.R. 2989) in early July. This bill is in response to the raging civil war in South Sudan, a country that the U.S. helped “midwife” into existence a mere four years ago.
Take Action
Please call or send a message to your Member of Congress and ask that they co-sponsor this important legislation. You can dial the US Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121, or use your Representative’s contact form on their website to leave a message like the following:
“My name is […], from [city, state]. I join JWW in asking Representative […] to co-sponsor H.R. 2989, the South Sudan Peace Promotion and Accountability Act. South Sudan is currently suffering from a civil war that has left 50,000 dead, 2 million displaced, and millions more in need of food and other aid. It is urgent that the U.S. show leadership in this arena, and take action to help the South Sudanese people. Please co-sponsor H.R. 2989.”
Don’t know who your Representative is? Visit the House of Representatives website, and enter in your zip code where directed in the upper right portion of the page.
Check here to see if your Representative has co-sponsored already. If they have, take a moment to thank them!
Rep. Rooney’s office details that the bill “directs the President to submit to Congress a strategy to support the U.N. peacekeeping mission, advance reconciliation, investigate human rights abuses, and ease the refugee crisis. It codifies into U.S. law sanctions against individuals who have undermined the peace process, and includes a statement of Congress urging all parties involved in the conflict to immediately cease all violence and work toward a negotiated, transparent settlement.”
As Rep. Lee said, “The United States will not sit idly by as violence and human rights abuses continue in South Sudan.”
JWW applauds this effort on behalf of the South Sudanese, and appreciates the essential continued engagement in South Sudan, a country that the U.S. was so instrumental in helping to gain independence.
For more information, please visit JWW’s other posts on this topic:
- JWW joined with 18 other organizations to call on the President to put South Sudan at the top of his agenda during his upcoming trip to Africa.
- Independence Day in the World’s Newest Country, A Less Than Joyous Occasion (7.9.2015)
- A way out of the crisis in South Sudan (7.8.2015)
- Update: Ambassador to South Sudan confirmed! (6.3.2015; 6.24.2015)