Statement on the House’s Proposal for Next Phase of Coronavirus Relief Legislation 

The international development and humanitarian organizations listed below issued the following statement on the House’s proposal for the next phase of coronavirus relief legislation:

“The COVID-19 relief package introduced in the House today does not yet have funds for an international response.

“U.S. leaders are rightly focused on bolstering our health system and preserving our economy. Yet this pandemic requires a global response. As America emerges from the aftermath of COVID-19, developing countries will be at the peak of the pandemic — with deaths in numbers that are hard to imagine in developing nations.

“Defeating COVID-19 in America requires defeating it globally.

“We urge Congress to fund a global response. No less than $12 billion must be provided, including significant resources for emergency global health, flexible humanitarian assistance and urgent economic relief, development of and access to new vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments for low resource settings and support for operations of the State Department, USAID, and implementing partners on the frontlines of the United States’ COVID-19 response worldwide.

“At least $12 billion now is critical to ensuring the most vulnerable communities can prevent, respond to, and mitigate impacts from this devastating pandemic. From our experience in prior epidemics, we know firsthand how this virus will devastate health systems.

“American leadership is needed now more than ever.”

Signatories

Action Against Hunger
Alliance for Peacebuilding
American Jewish World Service
Bank Information Center
Better World Campaign
Catholic Relief Services
ChildFund International
Church World Service
Food for the Hungry
Global Health Council
Global Water 2020
Humentum
InterAction
Lutheran World Relief
Mercy Corps
National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International
ONE
Oxfam
PATH
Refugees International
Save the Children
Solidarity Center
UNICEF USA