Press Release

Today, Representative Ami Bera, M.D. (CA-06), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee, and Representative Gregory W. Meeks (NY-05), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, along with all Subcommittee Ranking Members, issued a joint statement on the Trump administration’s elimination of nearly all U.S. foreign assistance programs, including life-saving humanitarian assistance:

“Today, the Trump Administration, Secretary Rubio, and Pete Marocco effectively laid waste to U.S. foreign assistance, cancelling more than 90% of USAID’s programs cutting life-saving humanitarian assistance activities for which Secretary Rubio himself had publicly claimed to have granted a waiver. House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats have repeatedly attempted to engage the Administration in good faith regarding its foreign assistance review and have been met with nothing but stonewalling. Neither the State Department nor USAID have consulted Committee Democrats throughout this deeply unserious process, which the Administration announced as a 90-day review but hastily concluded today to circumvent a court decision mandating the restart of desperately needed foreign aid.

“This sweeping cancellation of the vast majority of ongoing Congressionally appropriated foreign assistance betrays the interests of the American people. It very simply means that people will unnecessarily die preventable deaths, infectious diseases will be more likely to appear in the United States, American farmers will lose money and opportunities to export their food, terrorist groups abroad will thrive off instability, and malnourished children given the slimmest chance at survival will be denied the food they need to live.

“This is a shameful moment in U.S. history. President Trump and Secretary Rubio will own the consequences of this disastrous decision that makes a mockery of this Administration’s purported aim of a foreign policy that makes America safer, stronger and more prosperous. House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats will continue to push back on this Administration’s ill-conceived, opaque decision and work tirelessly to mitigate its harmful consequences.”

Joining the statement were Representatives Sara Jacobs, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Africa; Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on South and Central Asia; William Keating, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Europe; Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa; Joaquin Castro, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere; and Jared Moskowitz, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Intelligence.