Bipartisan support sought for child nutrition and HIV medication
The Clark County Democrats are seeking bipartisan unity to support President George W. Bush’s PEPFAR program; and to ship 400,000 boxes of already-approved emergency food.
Our local Unity Platform begins with these words. “Our Unity Platform respects Democrats and non-Democrats alike… We love Clark County, and we respect all who live here. We also believe in America, and that is why we seek unity over partisanship.”
In that spirit of respect, we ask all elected officials in Clark County to sign on to this letter before May 31. Via this media advisory, we ask any interested organizations or individuals to ask the elected officials you work with to sign on. We will then send it to the White House and the Washington State Congressional Delegation. There is much more that unites than divides us, and common decency is one of those unifying principles.
If you are an elected official in Clark County or representing all or part of Clark County, please sign on to this letter by May 31, by sending a short request to sign on to [email protected], along with your name, elected position, and party preference or nonpartisan status as you would like it to appear on the letter.
The Clark County Democrats seek your support for this specific letter, and we thank all of you for your public service.
Dear President Trump and members of the Washington State Congressional Delegation:
We write today to seek your support for President George W. Bush’s PEPFAR program, the Presidential Emergency Program for AIDS Relief; and for releasing 400,000 boxes of emergency nutrition for starving children that have been approved by President Trump and DOGE but have not been shipped.
The White House and Elon Musk have publicly supported continuing shipments of ready-to-use therapeutic food, or RUTF, to save the lives of innocent children who are starving. However, the current shipment of over 400,000 boxes has stalled for months, because DOGE employee Jeremy Lewin has not yet signed the last form to authorize shipment. This single shipment can save over 400,000 lives. We ask you to instruct Mr. Lewin to sign the form, so two American companies can ship this emergency food. We also ask you to continue the contracts for supplying this food, since both American companies, Edesia in Rhode Island and Mana Nutrition in Georgia, have been told their future contracts might or might not be continued. America can afford to send this inexpensive fortified peanut paste to save over 400,000 human lives with a single shipment, and even more with future inexpensive contracts.
At the moment, the White House has defunded President George W. Bush’s PEPFAR program. In a very real sense, this takes life-saving retroviral medications away from 20 million mothers, children, and adults with HIV, many of whom will die because that medicine was taken away. The White House has indicated life-saving interventions can continue. However, due partially to confusion and lack of clarity from the White House, HIV and AIDS treatment has been shut down across 50 organizations in 16 countries. Twenty million people rely on PEPFAR for HIV treatment. We do not want to suddenly take life-saving medicine away from 20 million HIV patients. We ask the White House to express its clear support for continuing President George W. Bush’s PEPFAR program and request for Congress to include it in the federal budget.
The budgets for these programs are small. PEPFAR is less than one-tenth of one percent of U.S. spending. To date, PEPFAR has saved 26 million lives and protected 8 million babies from being born with HIV. While people may have differences about many issues, removing life-saving medicine from 20 million people should not be one of them. Suddenly stopping this medicine will cause millions of deaths. Failing to ship the 400,000 boxes of emergency food will cause hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Please instruct Jeremy Lewin at DOGE to authorize these emergency food shipments; please extend the contracts for future emergency food shipments; and please clearly state the White House’s support for PEPFAR and your plans to fully fund it in the federal budget. We look forward to your affirmative reply.
Sincerely and in unity,
Elected Officials of All Parties, Independents, and Nonpartisan, from Clark County, Washington
[Signatories: Name, office, party preference or nonpartisan]
References:
Devex Dish: Red tape is preventing lifesaving food from reaching kids | Devex
Musk Said He Would Protect Lifesaving Aid for Kids. It Quietly Got Canceled. – The Atlantic
The end of AIDS is in sight: don’t abandon PEPFAR now
25 million deaths: what could happen if the US ends global health funding
PEPFAR delivers outsized returns—it deserves more funding
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