Background: This week, Congress is expected to debate a “Rescissions” package that would rescind over $9 billion of funding already appropriated for lifesaving humanitarian assistance, global stability, and peacebuilding. These cuts are in addition to the previously released fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget request, which includes a 13% increase in military spending and elimination of funding for several life-saving foreign assistance and peacebuilding programs, including Food for Peace. 

Cuts to U.S. foreign assistance exacerbate the growing number of people internally displaced globally and will lead to increases in trauma, famine, food insecurity and, likely, millions of deaths. 

Urge your members of Congress to recognize our moral responsibility to unconditionally prioritize assistance for vulnerable populations. 

Faith reflection: God’s love is generous and not calculating. In the Scriptures, Jesus repeatedly reminds us of our responsibility toward each other, especially in responding to basic needs and saving lives, describing how God blesses and rewards those who are compassionately generous to others (Matthew 25:31-45). God invites us to courageously love, be compassionate and share generously, the way God loves us.

Photo above: Jacqueline Kafuti, who holds bunches of cassava leaves in a field in Kanzombi, a section of Kikwit in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is cheered on by a group of people who are internally displaced. MCC/Fairpicture photo/Justin Makangara