Childhood mortality worldwide has been reduced 43 percent in the past thirty years. USAID played a big role in this achievement.

Phyllis Lamken
P.O. Box 586
Victor, ID 83455
208-313-7641
Fax: 208-787-2036
pal@lamkenlaw.com

To: Honorable James Risch

Fax: 202-224-2573

Why has USAID been shut down? I certainly didn’t see any legislation shutting down the agency. Oh, wait, a non-government employee, Elon (it wasn’t a Nazi salute) Musk shut down one of our nation’s most essential and effective foreign policy agencies. The employees are barred from the building. Yesterday, a group of rightly angry and outraged members of Congress were barred from the building.

In the past thirty years, the greatest reduction in childhood mortality rates was achieved. In 1990, 12.6 million children under the age of five died annually. In 2017, 2.5 million children under the age of five died. That is an 43 percent decrease. There is nothing comparable in the centuries prior to these three decades. This is a major achievement and the United States through USAID was a major player in the success of reducing childhood mortality.

As your constituent, I expect you to take action. I expect you to be outraged.

Your failure to speak out against this outrage violates your oath of office.

Thank you
Phyllis Lamken