Congress Must Approve Ukraine Aid and Hunger Relief Quickly | Opinion

It's urgent Congress approve the supplemental funding request from President Joe Biden supporting military aid for Ukraine and global humanitarian assistance.

War and hunger are a tragic reality in today's world that we must contend with—we can't shirk our responsibilities on either front. The $105 billion funding request also includes aid for Israel and funding for border security.

It's vital we provide military assistance to Ukraine so they can resist Russia's continuing invasion.

"Unless Congress takes urgent action in the new year, we will not be able to continue sending the weapons and vital air defense systems Ukraine needs to protect its people. Congress must step up and act without any further delay," President Biden said after Russia launched another deadly missile attack on Ukraine in December.

We cannot let Russia win the war by abandoning Ukraine. This would also send a dangerous message around the world that would embolden aggression. We must show strength to secure peace.

Russia must know that war is not to be tolerated. They must withdraw their troops from Ukraine. The focus must be on building peace instead of waging war. There is significant gain for all nations by negotiating peace treaties and the disarmament of nuclear weapons. But we cannot get there if we allow aggression to continue.

It's also vital we pass the supplemental funding request because it contains much needed food aid to fight global hunger. Wars and the impact of climate change have caused numerous countries to face severe food shortages.

It's imperative we increase funding for global food aid to help the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) and other charities providing relief. WFP has been forced to make tragic ration cuts because of low funding.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has also limited access to a valuable source of grain for the WFP's relief missions.

As the White House stated back in October when requesting the additional $10 billion in funding for food and other humanitarian aid, "Russia's illegal war in Ukraine also continues to have a global impact, particularly on food security, given Ukraine's role as the leading grain producer in the world, and this humanitarian assistance will address global needs."

Famine is a tragic possibility in 2024. War has put Sudan, Gaza, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, and other countries in desperate hunger emergencies.

Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, and other nations are also suffering severe hunger from conflict, climate change, and political unrest. Hunger in Central America is a crisis that is forcing people to flee to other countries to find food. Charities just don't have enough resources to keep up with all these emergencies. That is why the funding request for humanitarian assistance is so crucial.

"In the absence of the significant humanitarian resources included in the supplemental, we risk not only failing to respond in places like Sudan, Gaza, and Ukraine, but sliding back on long-term gains in poverty reduction as shocks like climate change and conflict knock vulnerable countries off track," said Kate Phillips-Barrasso, Mercy Corps' vice president of global policy and advocacy.

Congress needs to be taking action with so much on the line. Congress must start by approving the Ukraine aid package and increasing funding for global hunger relief.

William Lambers is an author who partnered with the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) on the book Ending World Hunger. His writings have been published by The Washington Post, History News Network, Cleveland's The Plain Dealer and many other news outlets. Lambers recently volunteered to write the Hunger Heroes section of WFP's online learning game Freerice.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.