Take Action: Tell Congress to Protect Humanitarian Foreign Aid
Contact your Senators and Representative, and urge them to support funding for refugee resettlement in the U.S. and around the world!
2011 Budget Agreement
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Leila Khayale of Pakistan and her daughter - |
On April 9, Congress and the President reached an agreement preventing a government shutdown and funded the government through September 2011. Thanks to advocates like you who defended humanitarian foreign aid, the FY2011 budget agreement did not cut these life-saving programs as much had been proposed.
In fact, it is directly to advocacy efforts of so many who spoke up in defense of the most vulnerable--including many supporters of CRWRC, Church World Service, and other Christian organizations--that a good deal of assistance for global humanitarian, refugee, health and development programs were preserved at about the 2010 levels.
The bad news is that this life-saving assistance is still very much in danger--we expect a much bigger struggle to prevent devastating cuts in the 2012 budget!
2012 Budget Debate
The 2012 budget proposal by the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee would reduce international funding by nearly 30 percent.
Humanitarian and poverty-focused foreign assistance only makes up one-half of 1 percent of the total budget. Drastic cuts in this area will not help to solve the budget crisis, but they will have a devastating impact on millions of people living in poverty and survivors of crises worldwide. Cuts also threaten to reverse significant progress that has been made over the past decade in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Almost 8 million children under 5 years old in the developing world die each year of preventable causes – 60 percent of these deaths are due to hunger and hunger-related diseases. But that number has been steadily decreasing in recent years, in part because of U.S. investments in global food security. Cuts to assistance will halt any gains we’ve achieved thus far.
If Congress enacts this proposal, results will be devastating and immediate, with millions of additional people going hungry. It could also mean:
- 3.7 million people won’t get tested for HIV this year
- 10.4 million bed nets won’t get to families to fight malaria
- 58,000 moms-to-be won’t receive the medicine to make sure their babies are born HIV-free
As people of God, we are called to speak up for the oppressed and defend the neediest. Thus, how we decide to reverse the trend of our ever-growing government debt is crucial, as some proposals place much of the burden on the poorest.
To reduce our federal debt at the expense of the most marginalized would be a violation of God’s command to show special concern for the poor and oppressed. Effective programs that prevent hunger and suffering and empower poorer members of society must be adequately funded.
Tell Congress that reducing the deficit on the backs of the poorest runs contrary to your Christian faith!
Take action today!
We've provided a sample form letter below. Please feel free to personalize it - legislators respond best to custom emails.