Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Cory Booker
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) joined 17 of his Senate colleagues today in a bipartisan letter to President Biden urging him to include funding for emergency international food aid in any upcoming supplemental request to Congress. Recently, the Biden Administration provided an additional $308 million in aid for humanitarian needs in Afghanistan and eased procedures for humanitarian groups. However, the Senators noted in their letter that both the United Nations and the World Food Programme (WFP) indicate far more is needed to prevent mass starvation in multiple countries, particularly in Afghanistan where nearly half the population is at severe risk.
“Despite progress in recent decades to prevent and alleviate global hunger, 2020 and 2021 have seen the highest levels of hunger in more than ten years with the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating conflict areas and severe droughts,” the Senators wrote. “Nowhere are the humanitarian needs more acute than in Afghanistan, where freezing winter weather is only worsening acute hunger… As such, we urge you to include robust funding for emergency international food aid as part of any upcoming supplemental request to Congress. These additional funds… would go a long way toward preventing starvation around the world.”
According to the United Nations’ 2021 report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, close to 12 percent of the world’s population, representing 928 million people, faces severe food insecurity and 30 percent faces at least moderate food insecurity. The impact is particularly significant on women and children, with more than 149 million children under the age of five affected by stunting and nearly 30 percent of women around the world between the ages of 15 and 49 affected by anemia.
Along with Booker, today’s letter was signed by the following Senators: Dick Durbin (D-IL), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chris Coons (D-DE), Bob Casey (D-PA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
Full text of today’s letter is available here.