Remember when we were hounding you to hound your members of Congress about cosponsoring the KONY 2012 Resolution? Well your hounding is paying off.

The U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs unanimously passed the Kony 2012 Resolution last Thursday.

The resolution (H. Res. 583) is a commitment to support the international effort to end LRA violence and arrest Joseph Kony, with a special focus on civilian protection, regional cooperation, and rehabilitation programs for affected communities. It supports the U.S. advisers currently deployed and lays out next steps for our leaders.

Just to be clear — this is a big deal. As you may remember from Schoolhouse Rock, there are several checkpoints before a bill or resolution can be passed. So each time an LRA-related bill passes a checkpoint, it’s a big deal.

And of the “big deal” checkpoints, passing through committee is one of the most important. I­­t means that the Congressional experts on foreign affairs have weighed in and agreed that this bill is in good shape and ready to be voted on by the entire House of Representatives.

We are celebrating the passage through the HouseForeign Affairs Committee and looking forward to when the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations will vote on the companion bill (S. Res. 402) in the next week or so. We’ll let you know how it goes!

Latest updates on LRA-related legislation come from Resolve, our advocacy partners in D.C.

Our thanks to the Members of Congress who cosponsored this bill and for those who have long been vocal supporters of efforts to stop the LRA.  In particularly, we’re talking to you, Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA), Ed Royce (R-CA), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Howard Berman (D-CA), and Chris Smith (R-NJ).

Again, thank you to everyone who attended a lobby meeting or asked members of Congress to support this resolution. It has been so encouraging to see the turnout of committed young activists and then the strong response from policymakers in Congress. I think this might be the way the democratic process was meant to work.

-Azy