A group of Senate Republicans on Thursday called on the Biden administration to call off its planned aid restoration to United Nation’s Palestinian refugee agency until significant reforms are met.
“We are concerned that this administration’s decision to resume US assistance to UNRWA was made in haste, without any actionable attempt to secure much-needed and meaningful reforms of the agency,” read the letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed by 21 senators.
Earlier this month, the administration announced it would provide $150 million to support the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), making good on a campaign promise and partially restoring the funding slashed by President Donald Trump more than two years ago.
The UN agency provides food assistance, health care, schooling and social services to an estimated 5.7 million registered Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. When Trump ended US funding to UNRWA, the agency lost its biggest donor and was forced to scale back many of its programs.
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