In response to the Trump administration terminating more than 90 percent of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s and the majority of the State Department’s foreign aid awards Amanda Klasing, National Director of Government Relations and Advocacy with Amnesty International USA said the following:
“The Trump administration’s move to abruptly terminate the majority of U.S. foreign assistance awards to thousands of programs and organizations around the world is causing immediate and devastating harm to millions of people.
“Programs funded by USAID and the U.S. State Department deliver life-saving humanitarian aid in addition to funding for clean water, education and school supplies, agricultural programs to support food security, protection for human rights defenders, and other vital human-rights related programs to more than 100 countries. This funding is under one percent of the U.S. government’s budget and supports peace and stability around the world.
“U.S. foreign assistance is vital to helping governments around the world meet their human rights obligations, and this abrupt and intentional collapse of U.S. funding programming is callously putting the rights and lives of millions of people around the world at greater risk.
“This decision by the Trump administration erodes human rights protections around the world. These heartless cuts eliminate life-saving work that Congress, elected to represent the American taxpayers in government funding decisions, passed laws to fund. We urge Congress to do its job and demand the administration respect the rule of law and ensure, as Congress has repeatedly stated, that human rights are a foreign policy objective that must be protected.”
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