WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, spoke on Wednesday at a U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs hearing on the U.S. response to the global food security crisis.

Murphy highlighted the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan: “In February, President Biden authorized $3.5 billion, that's about half of Afghanistan's frozen assets to be used, ‘for the benefit of the Afghan people.’ But three months later, we have not yet figured out what that international financing mechanism is. It still hasn't been set up.”

Murphy continued: “And so what advice would you give the administration, what advice would you suggest we give the administration as to how to push that $3.5 billion? Because it cannot be that we can't both save lives while also not unjustly enriching the Taliban. There is a mechanism by which to get this money as directly connected to the Afghan people as possible.”

“In a world in which we are starved for resources, here lies for the time being 3.5 billion dollars that is ready to go…There are plenty of mechanisms that will allow us to do both: save lives and make sure that this money doesn't end up in the hands of the wrong people. And so, my hope is that this committee can work with the administration to expedite a mechanism to get that money released,” Murphy concluded.

Earlier this year, Murphy chaired a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism hearing on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the U.S. response.

You can read Murphy’s full exchange with David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme and Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, CEO of Mercy Corps:

MURPHY: “Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for being here and for your fantastic work.

“I just wanted to have you all take a few minutes to delve a little bit deeper into the crisis in Afghanistan. This started as one of the world's poorest countries, and it has descended into what is really now the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

“And I'd like you all to give us a little bit of advice as to how we best unlock the significant amount of money that the United States currently has in its possession and at its disposal to try to address this crisis.

“In February, President Biden authorized $3.5 billion, that's about half of Afghanistan's frozen assets to be used, ‘for the benefit of the Afghan people.’ But three months later, we have not yet figured out what that international financing mechanism is. It still hasn't been set up.

“And so what advice would you give the administration, what advice would you suggest we give the administration as to how to push that $3.5 billion? Because it cannot be that we can't both save lives while also not unjustly enriching the Taliban. There is a mechanism by which to get this money as directly connected to the Afghan people as possible.

“So certainly, start with you, Mr. Beasley but I'd love comments from all three of our panelists.”

BEASLEY: “Senator Murphy, I mean, this is one of the things we've been talking about from the beginning because of the lack of funds that we have globally and then when Afghanistan hit we were already, right before Afghanistan, we were talking about the crisis that we're facing around the world, and then Afghanistan hit - a nation have for over 40 million people - 23 million people are in [The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification severity phases]  3, 4, 5. I mean, that's just unheard of. [8.7] million are knocking on famine’s door.

“So we were like, look, we don't have enough money. So what we did with the World Bank, because the World Bank couldn't give it to the Taliban, and so we actually sat down with the Taliban said, ‘Look, no one's gonna give you money. Let it go directly to us without your fingerprints being on it.’ They, I would say, consented, but didn't matter. But it worked out, the money came directly to us.

“The same thing on these frozen assets. I don't think there's any question whether it's us or UNICEF and others that we can work with teachers, health care providers, and of course, us working with beneficiaries throughout the country is not difficult to do.

“We're reaching about 14 million people right now. But because of lack of funding, we're having to cut back, cut back, cut back and at least try to reach those knocking on famine’s door. But we've got to unleash those funds, whatever it takes, because otherwise, you either got to appropriate more dollars and if you don't, you’re going to have famine, you have destabilization, which means we have more migration coming out of Afghanistan, and you will have an extraordinary amount of recruitment by extremist groups for terrorist training activities.”

MCKENNA: “Afghanistan is actually our largest, our longest continuous country presence. We have been operating in Afghanistan since the 1980s through multiple administrations. The government needs to figure out a mechanism to program that money to partners like us who are in those communities.

“That economy has collapsed. We've seen news accounts of family selling off young girls for dowry money because there's just no money coming in. Opium production is through the roof. We need to be able to start, we need to help save people from starvation.”

MURPHY: “But money coming directly to your programming does not enrich the Taliban in any way, shape, or form?”

MCKENNA: “No, and we've been working with Treasury to create different rules and such to that we can program those funds.”

MURPHY: “Well, listen, this is long overdue. In a world in which we are starved for resources, here lies for the time being 3.5  billion dollars that is ready to go. And you have pointed out that the programming you're running on the ground right now directly benefits the Afghan people without unjustly profiting the Taliban.

“You are not alone in that club. There are plenty of mechanisms that will allow us to do both: save lives and make sure that this money doesn't end up in the hands of the wrong people. And so, my hope is that this committee can work with the administration to expedite a mechanism to get that money released.”

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