In the midst of DC's biggest blizzard in decades this weekend, I missed an exciting announcement-- on Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced its support for relieving Haiti's international debt. Debt relief for Haiti will free up financing for the country to recover from the January 12th earthquake and rebuild its shattered infrastructure.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has pledged to work with other donor agencies to alleviate this debt burden on Haiti. He said:

The earthquake in Haiti was a catastrophic setback to the Haitian people who are now facing tremendous emergency humanitarian and reconstruction needs, and meeting Haiti's financing needs will require a massive multilateral effort... Today, we are voicing our support for what Haiti needs and deserves -- comprehensive multilateral debt relief.

This development comes on the heels of the religious community's advocacy for debt relief, from brand-new organization, The New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, to long-standing advocacy organizations like Jubilee USA. The New Evangelical Partnership celebrated and thanked the U.S. Treasury Department for their call and urged the remaining lending nations and institutions to swiftly forgive Haiti's debt, and continue our call for all aid to come in the form of grants. Jubilee USA also welcomed the Sec. Geithner's statement and said, "we can look forward to the US using its leadership to secure a broader commitment from G7 finance ministers."

And as Hayley Hathaway at Jubilee USA wrote in reference to the recent developments on the Haiti debt relief front at God's Politics today: "For those of us who work for social justice, victory can seem elusive. But then there are times when we mobilize at the right time with the right message and our leaders cannot help but listen and respond. This weekend was one of those times."

Thank goodness. The people of Haiti need all the help we can give.