Letter
Letter to Congress on Additional Humanitarian Assistance, November 28, 2016
November 28, 2016
The Honorable Lindsey Graham
Chair
Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
290 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy
Ranking Member
Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
437 Russell Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Kay Granger
Chair
House Appropriations
Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
1026 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Nita Lowey
Ranking Member
House Appropriations
Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
2365 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chairman Graham, Ranking Member Leahy, Chairman Granger and Ranking Member Lowey:
With deep appreciation for the United States Congress' steadfast commitments to humanitarian and development needs around the globe, we write to strongly urge you to incorporate the Administration's amendment request for humanitarian relief and recovery activities in your final appropriations for Fiscal Year 2017. While we are immensely grateful for the proposed funding to key humanitarian accounts in your bills – $3.2 billion for Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA), $2.8 billion for International Disaster Assistance (IDA), $1.6 billion for Food for Peace (FFP), and $60 million for Emergency Refugee and Migrant Assistance (ERMA) – we strongly urge you to appropriate new Overseas Contingency Operations funds in addition to these amounts to address unmet humanitarian needs.
The Committees on International Justice and Peace and Migration of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) believe that as the world's wealthiest nation, we have an obligation to help the innocent who fall victim to war, to protect the marginalized, and to lift people out of poverty. In 2015 alone, CRS served more than 100 million people in more than 100 countries. For decades, CRS has leveraged donations from U.S. Catholics raised through programs like CRS Ricebowl with public money to maximize the impact of programs overseas. We also partner with local Catholic organizations and others on the ground who have the trust of local populations to maximize the impact of assistance.
We urge you to respond generously to the Administration's request of November 11 for additional humanitarian and recovery assistance. In partnership with Caritas Iraq and others, CRS continues to help the more than 80,000 people affected by the liberation of Fallujah and others displaced from Hawija. But existing funding is insufficient. More than 50,000 people have already fled Mosul, joining the approximately 3.3 million Iraqis who have been internally displaced since ISIS began occupying parts of Iraq in 2014. As we have already learned in Iraq, individuals, communities, and countries divided by war face significant challenges amidst their suffering. They must rebuild their communities, and establish inclusive governance that protects majorities and minorities. We must provide them with humanitarian help and durable solutions to their plight because it's the right thing to do, and because their security and prosperity is critical to the stability of the entire region.
The needs in Iraq are in addition to increased suffering elsewhere in the world since the State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs appropriations bills were passed: the Southern African drought, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Lake Chad Basin, to name a few.
This new Overseas Contingency Operations funding will help to protect programs responding to crises like these that don't make the headlines. At USCCB and CRS, we know through our own emergency appeals that when Americans are asked to help, they respond generously.
Sincerely yours,
Most Rev. Oscar Cantú
Bishop of Las Cruces
Chairman, Committee on International Justice and Peace
Most Rev. Joe S. Vasquez
Bishop of Austin
Chairman, Committee on Migration
Dr. Carolyn Woo
President/CEO
Catholic Relief Services