Over the course of just a few weeks, the new administration suddenly halted foreign aid for 90 days, making dramatic cuts in funding and staff at the U.S. Agency for International Development. This has thrown the network of charities that administer our global humanitarian aid, including those funded by Catholics, into chaos. There is a human cost to acting so precipitously, which is partly why on Feb. 13, a federal judge ordered the administration to restore funding, given the “likelihood of a successful claim that the Executive’s actions violate the Constitution and statutes of the United States.”
While a government has the right and duty to ensure taxpayer funds are spent wisely, freezing that aid, even before any such review, adds to the suffering of people who are starving, homeless and threatened by disease. While the government announced that lifesaving aid work would be exempt, these exemptions are not being effectively implemented. A crippled USAID is not making timely payments for past and current work in these life-saving programs, perhaps causing permanent damage to the ability of humanitarian aid groups to save lives.
This is one of the reasons the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops filed suit against the administration on Feb. 18. “The conference suddenly finds itself unable to sustain its work to care for the thousands of refugees who were welcomed into our country and assigned to the care of the USCCB by the government after being granted legal status,” explained USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio. The USCCB, which “spends more on refugee resettlement each year than it receives in funding from the federal government,” according to the lawsuit, is still waiting for reimbursements from the government totaling about $13 million for expenses prior to Jan. 24.
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