Biden requests $6.4B from Congress to fund Afghan resettlement

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Joe Biden has asked Congress to appropriate some $6.4 billion to aid ongoing efforts to resettle at-risk Afghans following America's pullout from the war-torn country.

Acting Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young made the request public in a blog post Tuesday, calling on Congress to provide the funding "to enable the success of this multifaceted, historic mission."

"This operation has spanned the globe, beginning with moving evacuees from Afghanistan to third-country transit hubs on military air and charter flights. At transit hubs, evacuees are housed on U.S. bases, where they undergo biometric and biographic security screenings before they are allowed into the United States," she wrote.

"In addition to security processing, evacuees receive extensive COVID-19 and other public health precautions and are resettled in the United States with the help of government-funded NGO partners," she added.

The bulk of the funding will go to the Defense and State Departments to support overseas processing facilities and for transportation needs. Additional funding will be channeled to the State Department and USAID for humanitarian assistance for Afghans in the region and to the Department of Health and Human Services and State Department for public health screenings and vaccinations.