March 29, 2016

House Members Urge Full Funding of President Obama’s Colombia Aid Request

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL), and 14 of their House colleagues sent a letter to key House Appropriations Committee members asking them to fully fund President Barack Obama’s budget request for aid to Colombia.

Last month, President Obama announced a new aid package totaling $450 million for FY 2017 to assist the Colombian government in implementing a potential peace deal with the FARC guerillas after more than fifty years of violent conflict in the country. The funding would also support Colombia’s efforts to address security challenges including the threat of violent drug cartels.

“Now, just as the peace process is beginning to bear fruit, is not the time to reduce our financial assistance to our ally and partner,” the group wrote in a letter to Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), chair of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, and Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), who serves as the subcommittee’s ranking member. “After decades of equipping Colombia to fight, we have a vested interest in helping the Colombian people to rebuild. We must continue the robust, bipartisan support which, at long last, has brought Colombia to the precipice of peace.”

Read the letter here.

Signers include Rep. Ruben Gallego, Rep. Bradley Byrne, Rep. James P. McGovern, Rep. Sam Farr, Rep. Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr., Rep. John Lewis, Rep. Linda T. Sánchez, Rep. Charles B. Rangel, Rep. James A. Himes, Rep. Eric Swalwell, Rep. Filemon Vela, Rep. Tony Cárdenas, Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, Rep. Keith Ellison, and Rep. Mark Pocan.