{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://sarajacobs.house.gov/news/press-releases/congresswoman-jacobs-leads-letter-calling-on-white-house-to-improve-us-policies-to-address-afghanistans-humanitarian-and-economic-crisis", "Congresswoman Jacobs Leads Letter Calling on White House to Improve U.S. Policies to Address Afghanistan\u2019s Humanitarian and Economic Crisis", "2021-12-20", "2021", "2021-12", "Democrat", "House", "CA", "Sara Jacobs", "J000305", "sarajacobs.house.gov", "sarajacobs", "https://sarajacobs.house.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "San Diego, CA \u2014 Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-CA-53) led a letter to the White House today calling on the Biden administration to urgently update U.S. policies to address the humanitarian and economic collapse in Afghanistan. The letter was led by Jacobs and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA-07) and CPC Vice Chair Congressman Jes\u00fas \u201cChuy\u201d Garc\u00eda (D-IL-04) and was signed by four dozen members.\n\nIn a letter addressed to the President and senior Treasury Department officials, the lawmakers emphasized their support for his decision to withdraw troops from the country, but urged that the new phase of the U.S.-Afghan relationship must avoid harsh economic measures that will directly cause loss of life and other harm to Afghan families and children. Specifically, they urge \u201cconscientiously but urgently modifying current U.S. policy regarding the freeze of Afghanistan's foreign reserves and ongoing sanctions.\u201d They write, \u201cWe fear, as aid groups do, that maintaining this policy could cause more civilian deaths in the coming year than were lost in 20 years of war.\u201d\n\nCiting United Nations estimates that 1 million Afghan children are at risk of starving to death, the members of Congress note that the U.S. freeze of $9.4 billion in Afghanistan\u2019s foreign reserves in August, along with the imposition of broad economic sanctions, are driving \u201csoaring inflation and the shuttering of commercial banks and vital private businesses, plunging the country \u2014 which relies overwhelmingly on imports that require hard currency \u2014 deeper into economic and humanitarian crisis.\u201d Similarly, they note that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has denied Afghanistan access to special reserve assets intended to help developing countries alleviate the impact of the pandemic.\n\nThe consequences of these policies for the Afghan people have been immediate and catastrophic. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned that \u201cafter decades of war, suffering and insecurity, [Afghans] face perhaps their most perilous hour,\u201d imploring countries \u201cto take action and inject liquidity into the Afghan economy to avoid collapse.\u201d World Food Programme surveys indicate that 95 percent of Afghan households are not consuming enough food. The United Nations Development Program reports that Afghanistan will face \u201cuniversal poverty by the middle of next year,\u201d with the poverty rate expected to rise from 72 percent to as high as 98 percent. Afghanistan\u2019s economic pain and humanitarian collapse both threaten to trigger a new refugee crisis throughout the region.\n\n\u201cNo increase in food and medical aid can compensate for the macroeconomic harm of soaring prices of basic commodities, a banking collapse, a balance-of-payments crisis, a freeze on civil servants\u2019 salaries, and other severe consequences that are rippling throughout Afghan society, harming the most vulnerable,\u201d write the lawmakers. \u201cWe deplore the new Taliban government\u2019s grave human rights abuses, crackdowns on civil society and repression of women and LGBTQ people. However, pragmatic U.S. engagement with the de facto authorities is nevertheless key to averting unprecedented harm to tens of millions of women, children and innocent civilians. Punitive economic policies will not weaken Taliban leaders, who will be shielded from the direct consequences, while the overwhelming impact of these measures will fall on innocent Afghans who have already suffered decades of war and poverty.\u201d\n\nThe lawmakers note that engagement with the Taliban to coordinate central bank access to urgently needed hard currency can provide the necessary leverage to secure human rights improvements, and that a failure to avert economic catastrophe in Afghanistan creates risks to U.S. national security, by deterring Taliban cooperation on counterterrorism efforts, fueling anti-American resentment, and creating ungoverned spaces fertile for militant groups to seize. \u201cU.S. economic policy should not undermine the national-security imperative of seeking stability in Afghanistan, and instead should minimize the risk of threats emanating from the country,\u201d the lawmakers conclude. \u201cWe stand ready to work closely with you as you expeditiously review current U.S. policy in light of the extraordinary economic and humanitarian risks confronting the people of Afghanistan.\u201d\n\nRepresentatives Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Jes\u00fas \u201cChuy\u201d Garc\u00eda (IL-04), and Sara Jacobs (CA-53) were joined by Representatives Alma Adams (NC-12), Karen Bass (CA-37), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), Donald S. Beyer Jr. (VA-08), Jamaal Bowman, Ed.D (NY-16), Earl Blumenauer (OR-03), Cori Bush (MO-01), Tony C\u00e1rdenas (CA-29), Andr\u00e9 Carson (IN-07), Judy Chu (CA-27), Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Danny K. Davis (IL-07), Peter A. DeFazio (OR-04), Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11), Debbie Dingell (MI-12), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Teresa Leger Fern\u00e1ndez (NM-03), Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Al Green (TX-09), Jared Huffman (CA-02), Henry C. \u201cHank\u201d Johnson (GA-04), Mondaire Jones (NY-17), Kaiali\u2019i Kahele (HI-02), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), Andy Levin (MI-09), Alan Lowenthal (CA-47), Betty McCollum (MN-04), James P. McGovern (MA-02), Grace Meng (NY-06), Marie Newman (IL-03), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Katie Porter (CA-45), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Mark Takano (CA-41), Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), Juan Vargas (CA-51), and Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez (NY-07).\n\nThe letter can be found online here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://sarajacobs.house.gov/news/press-releases/congresswoman-jacobs-leads-letter-calling-on-white-house-to-improve-us-policies-to-address-afghanistans-humanitarian-and-economic-crisis"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4692980330437422, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}