Cutting foreign assistance funding might mean death for world's poor

In this opinion piece in The Hill's "Congress Blog," Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) writes that cutting "funding of vital programs that focus on global food security, health, climate adaptation, and disaster relief, ... which make up less than one percent of the U.S. federal budget, will not get us far in terms of plugging the budget gap but they could literally make the difference between life and death for many of the world's poor." She writes, "As part of a global response, the U.S. is responding, having already provided more than $600 million in assistance" to the Horn of Africa, but "[t]o ensure that future droughts don't again devastate poor and vulnerable communities, we must support investments in small scale food producers, especially women, to increase agricultural productivity and build resilience" (9/21).