As impoverished Yemen edges closer to famine, activists and lawmakers are ramping up pressure on the White House to restore tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian assistance that was suspended by the Donald Trump administration last year.
“Innocent civilians need our help now more than ever,” Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote on Monday, urging Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Gloria Steele, the acting administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), to “implement assistance free of political considerations or pressure.”