Right now, Congress is debating severe budget cuts that would be catastrophic for the most vulnerable children around the world. The plan would slash critical programs like Food for Peace, which provides lifesaving food assistance to tens of millions of families in dire need.
Cutting aid funding won’t fix the federal budget — but it will have a devastating impact on millions of children and their families who count on us to help them survive — and plan for a stable future. Make sure your members of Congress know where you stand.
Dear Member of Congress,
With more people around the world displaced by conflict than at any other time in the last 20 years, we simply cannot afford to scale back our humanitarian assistance programs. Needs are particularly acute with the strain that the ongoing crisis in Syria has placed on humanitarian accounts. With the crisis in Syria entering its fourth year, millions have been displaced, and neighboring countries face economic and political challenges resulting from strains that the steady flow of refugees places on their infrastructure and basic service capacity. Horrific violence has led to mass displacement in the Central African Republic, with nearly the entire population in need of humanitarian assistance, including 2.3 million children and adolescents.
I am a constituent who cares about protecting these populations and maintaining our commitment to humanitarian assistance. As Congress debates the FY 15 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations and Agriculture Appropriations bills, I ask you to prioritize support to humanitarian accounts and provide the same amount of funding for humanitarian assistance as Congress provided last year for the following accounts:
- $3.1 billion for the State Department's Migration and Refugee Assistance Account (MRA) that supports refugee populations around the world.
- $1.8 billion for USAID's International Disaster Assistance Account that provides global support for shelter, education and medicine for families internally displaced inside their own countries and impacted by natural and man-made disasters.
- $1.466 billion for Food for Peace in the Agriculture appropriations bill. Food for Peace provides lifesaving food assistance to tens of millions of vulnerable men, women and children around the world.
Thank you for supporting this request and ensuring that the US does not turn its back on the world's most vulnerable people.
Sincerely,
