November 29, 2023

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Dear Secretary Blinken and Administrator Power:

The Honorable Samantha Power
Administrator
U.S. Agency for International Development
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20004

We urge you to direct humanitarian funding to help address the dire needs of more than 100,000 refugees in Armenia.

Azerbaijan launched a deadly, unprovoked military attack on Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) on September 19, forcing over 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to safety in neighboring Armenia. The resulting humanitarian crisis requires Armenia to deploy significant resources to feed, house, and provide medical care for this rapid influx of forcibly displaced people.

We appreciate the diplomatic engagement shown by Administrator Power in your recent visit to Yerevan and the American pledge of $15.5 million in humanitarian aid. The Armenian government is admirably using that aid to help fulfill its commitment to these vulnerable people, but significant additional assistance is required to continue meeting immediate and long-term needs of such a large group of refugees.

It is essential that the United States provide additional robust humanitarian assistance to Armenia. This funding will enable Armenia, a democratic country whose foreign policy has made a sharp turn to the West and away from Russia, to provide critical aid to the new refugee population, help families rebuild their lives after they were violently forced out of their historic homeland, and develop support programs that will allow them to live safe, productive lives.

To achieve these humanitarian goals, the Armenian government has identified costs for refugee housing, employment, health care, education, social protection, and other related programs. We understand that the Armenian government has relayed the details of these programs to the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development.

We urge you to take these humanitarian requirements and the consequences of inaction into consideration. Assistance from the United States in contributing toward refugee humanitarian aid will have the dual impact of fulfilling the critical needs of a suffering people and bolstering America’s standing in Armenia and throughout the Caucasus region.

We also request that you continue demonstrating U.S. global leadership and upholding American values. We appreciate your consideration of these requests and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Frank Pallone, Jr., Member of Congress

Gus M. Bilirakis, Member of Congress

Adan B. Schiff, Member of Congress

David G. Valadao, Member of Congress

Jim Costa, Member of Congress

Brad Sherman, Member of Congress