Democratic senators said in a letter that the administration was failing its first test of humanitarian aid as China and Russia send teams to help.
Democratic senators sent a letter to the Trump administration on Wednesday criticizing what they called the paltry U.S. aid response to the earthquake in Myanmar, where China and Russia have sent rescue and relief teams.
The six senators said in the letter that the United States appeared to be failing the first test of its ability to respond to a humanitarian crisis in the wake of the Trump administration’s drastic cuts to foreign aid and dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development, the main aid agency.
“We are deeply concerned that the administration’s response is failing to meet both our moral and strategic objectives — sending a signal to countries around the world that our adversaries are more reliable and trustworthy than the United States,” the senators wrote.
The New York Times obtained a copy of the letter, which was organized by the offices of Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the ranking member on the Banking Committee, and Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, who is on the Foreign Relations Committee. The other senators who signed were Tim Kaine of Virginia, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. The senators sent it to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Mr. Rubio and a political appointee at the State Department, Pete Marocco, oversaw the slashing of foreign aid, and Mr. Bessent’s agency oversees financial sanctions on Myanmar. The senators said in the letter that the U.S. government should grant sanctions waivers to any earthquake relief going into Myanmar.
The United States did not send any specialist aid teams to Myanmar after the earthquake hit on Friday. More than 2,700 people have died as buildings there and in neighboring Thailand collapsed, according to the ruling authoritarian military leaders of Myanmar. The junta asked other nations for help. China, Russia and India sent teams and supplies, as did Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.