The PC(USA)’s Office of Public Witness signs letter urging Congress to work to preserve USAID

LOUISVILLE — Organizations that partner with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are speaking out this week against proposed deep cuts to the operations of such entities as the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.

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Among them is the ACT Alliance, which said it is “deeply concerned about the profound humanitarian consequences that may result from recent decisions by the United States administration severely limiting the ability of organizations around the world to continue to provide life-saving assistance to vulnerable individuals and families.”

The PC(USA)’s Office of Public Witness signed a letter to House and Senate leaders from the Interfaith Working Group on Foreign Assistance, expressing “our grave concerns over the sudden order to stop lifesaving foreign assistance work around the globe and the dismantling of USAID.”

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols ordered a pause at least until Feb. 21 to the administration’s plan to shrink USAID’s workforce.

In 1961, Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act, which created USAID and reorganized foreign aid programs. "There is no escaping our obligations: our moral obligations as a wise leader and good neighbor in the interdependent community of free nations — our economic obligations as the wealthiest people in a world of largely poor people, as a nation no longer dependent upon the loans from abroad that once helped us develop our own economy — and our political obligations as the single largest counter to the adversaries of freedom,” President John F. Kennedy said upon USAID’s founding.

“We recognize that all new administrations have the right to review ongoing programs against their policy goals and that such reviews are a standard part of any transition,” the letter from the Interfaith Working Group on Foreign Assistance states. “However, ceasing almost all life-saving humanitarian, peacebuilding, health, and poverty-focused development assistance during such a review is unconscionable and menacing, and inflicts harm on innocent people. Such actions are not in keeping with our nation’s core values and the will of the American people.”

“The ACT Alliance stands in solidarity with our members in the United States and around the world whose programs and standing have been affected by actions and narratives shared by the new administration,” ACT Alliance’s letter states. “These sweeping and harmful policy decisions have significantly limited many of our members’ ability to maintain programs and serve vulnerable families who need critical services. These actions undermine the values of mercy, compassion, solidarity, inclusion, respect, and justice, which guide our mission and commitment to the most marginalized communities.”

“With nearly 70% of humanitarian funding for the [Democratic Republic of the Congo] coming from the United States, USAID has been a vital force in sustaining medical care, food security, and emergency response efforts in Goma,” according to Just Security, which is based at the Reiss Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law. “Prior to the aid freeze, USAID-funded programs supported emergency obstetric care, reproductive health services for sexual violence survivors, and disease prevention initiatives, including cholera and measles vaccination campaigns in displacement camps. However, with the aid suspension, many of these critical services have been forced to scale down or halt altogether, leaving thousands of women and children without life-saving medical and nutritional support at a time when humanitarian needs are imperative.”

“Congress’ investment in U.S. foreign assistance has been clear and committed,” according to the letter by the Interfaith Working Group on Foreign Assistance. “Our multi-faith community is also committed — committed to the moral obligation to provide food, water, medicine, emergency nutrition and so much more to those affected by poverty, conflict and marginalization around the world, especially children.”

Private and faith-based organizations “cannot do this work alone,” the letter states. “We cannot match the scope and scale of U.S. government funding, material support, and influence. For decades, faith-based organizations have worked side-by-side with the implementers of U.S. government-funded programs, exemplifying public-private cooperation at its best, with genuinely lifesaving results.”

“Congress’ on-going commitment to its power of the purse is vital to this work and to this democracy,” the letter concludes. “We ask that you do not stand by as America’s generosity is vilified. We thank every member of Congress for standing steadfast as together we navigate the challenging days ahead. But no day is more challenging than the one in which a mother must choose which child is fed that day and which will go hungry.”

The letter is signed by the Office of Public Witness and more than 40 organizations and faith groups, many of whom are PC(USA) partners.