Hunger, development key to foreign aid, says joint letter to Senate

Published: 2007-09-06

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In a joint letter to members of the Senate, the head of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Policy and the president of Catholic Relief Services called increased funding for hunger relief and development grants key in an upcoming foreign aid bill. "The persistence of abject hunger, poverty and disease in God's world is a significant moral challenge," said the Sept. 5 letter from Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., and Ken Hackett, CRS president. "Reliable programs that have proven results in combating or reducing poverty and disease deserve the full support of the U.S. Congress." The Senate, back in session after a four-week August recess, was to consider the 2008 foreign aid bill, formally known as the State/Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill. Bishop Wenski and Hackett argued for the upgrade of Millennium Challenge Corporation funding to at least $1.8 billion, the level approved by the House. The Senate version as written calls for a cut in funding to $1.2 billion. Last year's foreign aid bill had appropriated $1.9 billion. President George W. Bush had asked for $3 billion.

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