where quake aid goes

About $1.25 each from everyone in the United States.

Each American dollar roughly breaks down like this: 42 cents for disaster assistance, 33 cents for U.S. military aid, nine cents for food, nine cents to transport the food, five cents for paying Haitian survivors for recovery efforts, just under one cent to the Haitian government, and about half a cent to the Dominican Republic.

Martha Mendoza, AP review of U.S. earthquake relief. Cash is withdrawn from $2.6 billion already appropriated in the 2010 budget for foreign disaster relief. There are no plans to ask Congress for more money.

  1. The U.S. rarely gives large amounts of money directly to governments. Under one penny of each dollar is going straight to the shattered Haitian government, whose president is sleeping in a tent.
  2. Just under a dime has already been spent on food: 122 million pounds of pinto beans, black beans, rice, corn soy blend and vegetable oil. When purchased in bulk, the actual food prices are relatively low. Pinto beans, for example, cost the U.S. government 40 cents a pound when purchased in 5 million-pound batches last week.
  3. 33 cents is going to the U.S. military, paying for security, search and rescue teams, and the Navy’s hospital ship USNS Comfort.
  4. 42 cents funds US AID’s disaster assistance – everything from $5,000 generators to $35 hygiene kits with soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste for a family of five.

“I really believe Americans are the most generous people who ever lived, but they want accountability,” said Timothy R. Knight, a former US AID assistant director who spent 25 years distributing disaster aid.