Foreign Affairs Dems press Rubio on Burma earthquake response, USAID cuts

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and 18 other Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee pressed the Trump administration to urgently provide aid for those impacted by the deadly Burma earthquake last month. 

In a Tuesday letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the group addressed their concerns amid the “shuttering” of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and “gutting” of U.S. foreign assistance programs.

“The United States has long been a leader in humanitarian assistance and disaster response globally, including in Asia after the 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami. These efforts have enhanced America’s reputation, bolstered our diplomatic influence, and strengthened our military-to-military cooperation and bilateral relationships with nations in the region,” Democrats wrote.

“The Trump Administration’s disastrous response to the earthquake in Burma severely undercuts that leadership, and, unless corrected, will damage our influence and interests in the region,” they added.

The 7.7 magnitude quake killed more than 3,000 and injured more than 4,500 people.

“To make matters worse, the horrific Burmese military continued to bomb its citizens in the aftermath of the earthquake. President Trump initially confirmed to reporters after the quake that the U.S. would be rushing assistance to the region,” the Democrats wrote.

“Instead, public reporting suggests that the United States has been missing in action,” they added.

The Hill has reached out to the State Department for comment.

The group of Democrats said the administration sent a small response team of three personnel to the region to assess the damage — and then dismissed them from their roles two days later while China sent more than 600 rescue workers.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee members added that USAID workers in the region received termination notices on the same day the natural disaster occurred.

“If the Administration does not act quickly to turn things around on its response to the current disaster in Southeast Asia, U.S. credibility risks being severely damaged within ASEAN and the broader region,” the letter reads.

“Your statement last week that ‘we are not the government of the world’ and have ‘other needs’ and ‘other priorities’ burns friendships we have built and commitments we have made in the region—including with treaty allies and through bilateral security cooperation agreements that anchor humanitarian and disaster response as shared national security priorities. This will only encourage our partners and allies to look to and work with China instead,” it continued.

The committee members laid out a list of questions, including why a disaster assistance response team was not deployed, why USAID workers sent to the region were terminated after arrival, how direct requests for assistance from the nation were impacted, how much money the U.S. has pledged to disaster relief efforts and how the administration would ensure humanitarian aid was not obtained by the Burmese military junta.

Senate Democrats sent a letter with similar inquiries in early April. 

“The U.S. response thus far has betrayed our moral leadership and U.S. national security interests,” House Democrats wrote.

“We seek answers to the questions above so that we can partner with you to remedy the damage and restore the U.S. foreign assistance tools we need to be a global leader,” they added.