Source: United States Senator for Oklahoma James Inhofe
As tens of millions face starvation worldwide due to Putin’s war on Ukraine, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) joined a bipartisan group of 11 of his colleagues in a letter, led by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), seeking accountability from USAID for failing to deliver the more than $10 billion in aid Congress sent to help.
Recognizing the acute need for shelter, medicine, and food both in and beyond Ukraine, Congress approved nearly $10 billion in humanitarian and food aid through two separate emergency packages—one in March 2022 and another in May 2022—but the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has failed to deliver aid quickly. USAID has not yet delivered or even committed all the funding from the first package, and has elected to hold more than half of the funding from the second package until the next fiscal year.
Yesterday, Inhofe and his colleagues sent a letter to USAID Administrator Samantha Power requesting a briefing and answers for the agency’s months-long delays in delivering this Congressionally-approved emergency aid to people in need immediately.
Inhofe, Ernst and their colleagues wrote: “Stopping Russia’s military campaign across Ukraine is a security necessity; preventing a large-scale humanitarian crisis prevents global unrest, mass migration, widespread starvation and preserves American safety and prosperity here at home. Unless the United States translates well-meaning rhetoric and appropriated dollars into a swift humanitarian response, Russia’s crimes against humanity and weaponization of the global food supply will go unpunished.
The senators continued: “The most significant proposal of humanitarian aid in modern U.S. history must be accompanied by an infrastructure that assumes more prudent risk and quickly delivers support.”
In addition to Inhofe, senators who joined the letter to Administrator Power include Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), James Risch (R-Idaho), Rob Portman (R-Ohio.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C).
Read the full letter here.