The recent foreign aid cuts have done immense harm to vulnerable people across the world. Our faith demands that we act in response.
Last week, the Interfaith Working Group on Foreign Assistance, cochaired by FCNL and Bread for the World, brought leaders from eleven faith organizations to Washington for a series of urgent meetings on Capitol Hill on foreign aid. Leaders, including FCNL’s Bridget Moix, met with Democrats and Republicans in the relevant subcommittees of the Appropriations Committees in the House and Senate.
Several participants joined us while observing Ramadan. I was inspired by their commitment to show up for this important cause while fasting: attending multiple meetings and walking over four miles each day around Capitol Hill to speak to congressional offices.
By speaking up together, with our faith as our motivation to advocate for foreign aid, we were able to have frank conversations with Congressional staff focused on how decisions in Washington are impacting communities globally. Participants shared how their own work was harmed and the impacts on staffing for their agencies including program closures, layoffs and confusion in the ‘waiver’ process.
As an interfaith community, members of the working group highlighted our shared values of promoting human dignity, protecting God’s creation, and fulfilling our moral obligation to care for the vulnerable and reduce human suffering.
We know that members of Congress share this moral compass. Terminating 90% of U.S. foreign assistance grants and contracts is not in keeping with our nation’s core values and the will of the American people.
Terminating 90% of U.S. foreign assistance grants and contracts is not in keeping with our nation’s core values and the will of the American people.
Faith communities and faith-based organizations have always been committed to the moral obligation to love our neighbors and to provide for those affected by poverty, conflict, and marginalization. Americans are generous and give from the pews to fund faith-based organizations’ work around the world to assist the most vulnerable.
But we cannot do it alone.
Faith-based organizations cannot match the scope and scale of U.S. government funding, material support, and influence.
Congress must act urgently to prevent the theft of money that they have approved. The United States must continue to invest in foreign assistance in the fiscal year 2026 and beyond.
This is a difficult time in Congress, but one thing came through clearly as we held these meetings. Congressional staff told us that input from constituents like you is crucial in this moment.
