Rush Holt, the New Jersey democrat and arguably the smartest member of congress, is passing around a “Dear Colleague” letter in support of a resolution to award Grameen Bank founder (and UN Foundation board member) Muhammad Yunus a Congressional Gold Medal:
Dear Colleague:
Please join the bipartisan effort to recognize Dr. Yunus for his monumental accomplishments by cosponsoring the Muhammad Yunus Congressional Gold Medal Act. Awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Dr. Yunus will send a powerful signal of support to the many groups following in his footsteps who are dedicated to helping the poor help themselves.
Through the Grameen Bank, Dr. Yunus created an economically feasible model of extending small loans to the very poor. The microcredit movement he pioneered has changed literally millions of lives around the world, increasing hope and opportunity, and enabling people to use their own entrepreneurial energy to improve their own lives. Dr. Yunus’s work has had a particularly strong impact in improving the economic prospects of women, who disproportionately shoulder the burden of poverty and who comprise 95 percent of microcredit borrowers.
Dr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. President Obama awarded Dr. Yunus the Presidential Medal of Freedom on August 12, 2009. The U.S. Senate has already passed a companion bill to award Dr. Yunus a Gold Medal. It is time for the U.S. House of Representatives to recognize Dr. Yunus’s important contributions to peace and opportunity around the world.
For more information or to cosponsor this bill, please contact XXX
Sincerely,
RUSH HOLT
A Hill source says: “Looks like it has a lot of support…. 100+ cosponsors. That’s generally the level needed to bring a bill to the floor.”