Restore America’s Humanitarian Aid Before More Lives Are Lost

CONGRESS MUST REVERSE THE DISMANTLING OF USAID As your constituent, I urge Congress to restore lifesaving foreign aid cancelled when the Trump administration dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This was not ordinary budget review. It was institutional harm: the rapid disabling of a proven humanitarian system built over decades. THE HUMAN AND PUBLIC-HEALTH COSTS ARE STAGGERING The facts are severe. A Lancet study found that USAID-supported programs helped prevent more than 91 million deaths from 2001 to 2021, including about 30 million deaths among children under five. The study further projected that deep USAID cuts could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, including 4.5 million young children. Center for Global Development researchers estimated that U.S. foreign aid saves about 3.3 million lives per year, including through HIV/AIDS treatment, vaccines, tuberculosis control, malaria prevention, and emergency food aid. Aid interruptions have been linked to malaria resurgence, HIV service disruption, medicine stock-outs, food aid cutoffs, and weakening of disease surveillance. When appropriated aid is cut off without lawful replacement, disease spreads, children die, and U.S. credibility suffers. A GREAT NATION DOES NOT WALK AWAY FROM HUMANITARIAN OBLIGATIONS For generations, the United States has been identified not only with military and economic strength, but also with its willingness to help confront famine, disease, disaster, and extreme poverty. Abruptly abandoning major humanitarian commitments after lives and health systems have come to depend upon them damages American honor and weakens our nation’s reputation for reliability, decency, and responsible leadership. OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY ARE NOW ESSENTIAL Congress appropriated these funds and created the legal framework for U.S. development assistance. The Executive Branch should not be able to dismantle an agency, cancel programs, strand partners, and leave Congress and the public guessing where the funds went. This is a practical, moral, and national-security issue. Restoring lifesaving aid protects people, stabilizes regions, limits disease threats, and reasserts Congress’s power of the purse. IMMEDIATE CONGRESSIONAL ACTION IS REQUIRED I urge you to: (1) Speak publicly for immediate restoration of lifesaving USAID and foreign assistance programs. (2) Hold bipartisan hearings to determine what was cancelled, who ordered it, what statutory authority was claimed, what warnings were ignored, and where appropriated funds went. (3) Use appropriations, authorization, oversight, and litigation-support tools to revive USAID capacity and restore essential aid. (4) Pass strong legislation preventing any future administration from dismantling a congressionally created foreign-assistance system through abrupt cancellations, staff purges, funding freezes, or agency absorption without explicit congressional approval. Thank you.