Bono Pushes for Debt Relief

September 22 -- U2 frontman Bono was in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, at a news conference on the steps of the U.S. Congress appealing to the government to increase the amount of debt relief provided to impoverished nations. The singer, a key proponent of the Jubilee 2000 campaign, which encourages the world's wealthiest nations to drop dept owed to them by Third World countries, was accompanied by U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and others, including Republican senator Orrin Hatch.

The Clinton administration has requested Congress to authorize payment of $435 million over two years to pay the United States' share of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, which aims to ease or forgive the crippling debt burdens of some of the poorest nations. However, the House of Representatives and the Senate both have balked at appropriating the full amount.

Instead, the House has set aside some $225 million and the Senate just $75 million in two different versions of foreign aid bills that have yet to be reconciled.

While Bono told the assembled that he was encouraged by the support he had seen in Washington, he voiced concerns about Congress actually coughing up the requisite dough.

"It's hard to get people in this town to agree on anything, and yet people have really come together on this," he said. "But until I see the $435 million, I'm going to be a bit skeptical."

He also joked that all his hard work lobbying for the cause would increase the number of complimentary tickets he'll have to dole out in the future to keep his new political bedfellows happy. "It's going to be a lot of tickets," he said. "Just the sight of Orrin Hatch in the mosh pit … it's exciting." The band, which releases its new album, All That You Can't Leave Behind, on Oct. 31, is still finalizing plans for an upcoming world tour.

On Sept. 7, the Irish rock star delivered a petition with more than 21 million names — including the Dalai Lama, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Muhammad Ali, and David Bowie — to the United Nations Millennium Summit, urging them to cancel Third World debt.