Schatz Statement on USAID

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), lead Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, released the following statement on reports that the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Acting Assistant Administrator for Global Health was put on leave after authoring an internal memo detailing the failures at USAID to provide critical humanitarian aid.

“These new details confirm our worst fears: the illegal and systematic dismantling of USAID will cause real suffering and deaths that are entirely preventable. Instead of addressing the issues outlined by Acting Assistant Administrator for Global Health Nicholas Enrich, the State Department has silenced and sidelined him. It’s completely inappropriate and wrong. Congress and the American people deserve real action from the State Department to actually provide the assistance Congress has directed and answers on why obstacles were created at USAID to prevent that aid from flowing.”

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