Congress's Decisions Regarding COVID, USDA Funding Are Ill Portend for US Humanitarian Aid

At the very time the US should be establishing itself as the beacon of humanitarianism it is slashing funds for food and medicine

Common Dreams writer Brent Wilkins described the recent actions in the House where the Coronavirus Supplemental Appropriations Act is running the gauntlet and being gutted of most foreign aid. At the same time, as the Washington Post reported yesterday, the Senate has enacted their version of the bill that cuts $10,000,000,000 in aid for international COVID medications while providing a like amount for US COVID prevention and treatment.

The House version of COVID legislation cuts $1,650,000,000 from the USDA budget, cuts that will impact hungry Americans as well as those abroad who are likely to see increasing food shortages as a result of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. Here’s Mr. Wilkins’ description:

More than 160 advocacy groups on Monday sent letters to President Joe Biden and congressional leaders decrying a proposal to slash up to $1.65 billion in U.S. Department of Agriculture funding, a move that comes during a pandemic-driven global hunger crisis…

"The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the multiple vulnerabilities of our highly consolidated food system," the letters state, "and even after years of robust federal response, supply chain disruptions continue, and rising food prices put more families at risk of nutrition insecurity."

"Ultimately, the $1.65 billion proposed rescission will impact the most vulnerable among us," the signers warn, and "will leave USDA without resources to respond to supply chain disruptions exacerbated by the instability in Europe and attendant market and input price disruptions."

Farm Action, which signed the letters, said in a statement that "this money grab is particularly hard to swallow when you consider that we're on the brink of an international food crisis, food inflation is already up 20%, and farmers are probably looking at yet another year of negative income."

The scope of the Senate bill is described in the Post article by Dan Diamond and Rachel Ruben:

The bipartisan package, unveiled by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), would enable U.S. officials to purchase more therapeutics, tests, vaccines and other supplies, after the White House repeatedly warned that it needed more funding for those priorities. The legislation also calls on federal officials to invest at least $5 billion to develop and procure therapeutics, and at least $750 million in efforts to fight future variants and to build vaccine manufacturing capacity.

But it includes no money for the global response, which Biden officials have said is critical to protect Americans from the emergence of new, potentially dangerous variants in other parts of the world that would probably make their way to the United States.

The consequences of this are obvious to anyone who wishes our nation would take a leadership role in providing humanitarian aid… and disappointing for those who see the need for international vaccinations to help OUR country prevent a further spread of COVID variants:

“The U.S. has turned its back on the world,” said Zain Rizvi, research director for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization. “Penny-pinching in a pandemic will have devastating consequences for vaccinating the world, for reducing the risk of variants, for all of us. … Abandoning the global covid response will put American lives at risk.”

It is a sad day when even logic based on selfishness cannot persuade Congress to help destitute nations overcome the ravages of hunger and a deadly disease. Neither of these articles indicate that anyone in Congress made a moral and ethical argument for funding food or medicine for those in the world who cannot afford to pay for them. Instead, it appears that Congress is focusing on how the provision of food and medicine for poor nations will affect our nation and ONLY our nation… and even with THAT argument the additional funding failed to secure enough votes.

America’s continued short-sightedness and insularity do not bode well for creating peace in the world. Those nations lacking food and medicine will likely fall prey to the promises of authoritarian leaders who will use our selfishness to turn their voters against us.