Senators Murray, Menendez Demand an End to State Department’s Harmful Actions Toward U.S. Diplomat Families who Have Children with Disabilities

The State Department’s actions effectively discriminate against families who have children with disabilities

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Patty Murray (D-WA), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanding an end to harmful actions being taken against the families of U.S. diplomats who have children with disabilities, and requesting an explanation of how the Trump Administration plans to address past and ongoing wrongs.

Today’s letter follows an article by Foreign Policy which reported that Secretary Pompeo has ignored pleas of help from a group representing 1,400 Foreign Service families who are “in a struggle they’ve been waging for more than a year now against the erosion of their medical and education benefits.”

Reports emerged last year that, under then-Secretary Tillerson, the State Department’s Medical Bureau (MED) had withdrawn funding for services overseas that children with disabilities are entitled to in the United States, and also barred some children of U.S. diplomats from going abroad. “The