Our Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and their colleagues in Congress are crafting the federal government’s budget for 2017. As they do so, I encourage them to protect cost-effective, life-saving programs that fight diseases like HIV/AIDS, tackle hunger, and help the world’s poor pull themselves out of poverty for good, all for less than 1 percent of the federal budget.
I am fortunate that I, like many of us in Camas and Vancouver, don’t have to worry about where my next meal is coming from, or if I can get my children medicine when they have an illness. But millions around the world aren’t so fortunate. I have witnessed this firsthand on my trips to volunteer in African orphanages and at refugee camps in other parts of the world. Many people might not know, but less than 1 percent of the budget saves lives around the world and where you live should not determine whether you live or die.
The facts show extreme poverty has already been cut in half and can be virtually eliminated by 2030. We’ve come too far in the fight against extreme poverty to turn back now. So I ask Murray and Cantwell and their colleagues to please protect life-saving programs like The Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, along with our nutrition aid, as the budget process moves forward.
