Urge your senators to provide robust funding for poverty-fighting programs in FY25 SFOPs bill
In July, the Senate began consideration of Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) regular appropriation bills to fund various government programs and services. One of the 12 bills under consideration is the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPs). This appropriations bill provides total discretionary funding for numerous international programs, including for emergency humanitarian assistance, long-term development support, conflict prevention and peacebuilding programs, protection of forcibly displaced populations, environmental and global health programs, and many more others.
At the end of June, the House of Representatives passed an SFOPS appropriations bill with an 11% funding reduction. This is cause for concern. These funding cuts will weaken our nation’s ability to respond to humanitarian emergencies and fight hunger, diseases, extreme poverty and climate change. As senators work to allocate funding levels, we need to ask them to reject proposals to cut funding for these lifesaving international programs; instead, they should show leadership by ensuring these essential programs are sufficiently resourced. Suggested in this Action Alert to your senator are particular lifesaving programs which would benefit from sufficient resourcing.
“We affirm that our nation has responsibility to contribute a portion of its wealth to people in poorer nations through effective economic assistance,” reads the ELCA social statement For Peace in God’s World. “Assistance should come in the form of both humanitarian aid needed to relieve the consequences of disasters and development assistance that contributes to improvements in the quality of life in developing economies.”
Customize this Action Alert with your own words and experiences. Let your senator know why you care, and urge them to reject any proposals to cut funding for poverty-focused assistance in the SFOPs FY25 appropriations bill.
[Posted: 8/13/2024]
