[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 332 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 332

     Expressing the sense of the Congress with regard to providing 
   humanitarian aid to cyclone victims in the Indian State of Orissa.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 22, 2000

 Mr. Campbell submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
          referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
     Expressing the sense of the Congress with regard to providing 
   humanitarian aid to cyclone victims in the Indian State of Orissa.

Whereas on October 17 and 29, 1999, cyclones struck the Indian State of Orissa, 
        killing more than 10,000 people and destroying more than 7 million 
        houses, leaving uncounted millions homeless;
Whereas Orissa is the second poorest State in India;
Whereas more than 80 percent of the rural population of Orissa are subsistence 
        farmers and fishermen with fewer than two acres of land;
Whereas in the immediate aftermath of the storm, the United States Agency for 
        International Development (USAID) of the Office of Foreign Disaster 
        Assistance provided $3.3 million in relief aid and $4.1 million in 
        emergency food aid through the American private volunteer organizations 
        Cooperative Assistance for Relief Everywhere (CARE) and Catholic Relief 
        Services;
Whereas the government of Orissa did not declare an emergency and refused 
        offerings from the United States Embassy in New Delhi to provide air 
        lifts and emergency humanitarian rations;
Whereas assistance from United Nations agencies has been restricted to 
        rehabilitation, which is largely unfounded;
Whereas additional assistance has been provided by the United Kingdom, European 
        Union, the Canadian Government, and others and this combined assistance 
        has not been adequate to meet the needs of the people of Orissa;
Whereas a recent nutritional survey conducted in Orissa by CARE found that 60 to 
        70 percent of children under five years old in several of the cyclone-
        affected areas are moderately to severely malnourished;
Whereas the CARE survey teams were unable to find people over 60 years old 
        because nearly all people in this age range in the surveyed villages 
        were killed in the storm or its aftermath;
Whereas there is no comprehensive plan or funding for meeting the needs of the 
        cyclone survivors with respect to housing reconstruction, agricultural 
        support, medical care, education, and nutrition supplementation; and
Whereas these factors make it likely that the rural poor of Orissa will migrate 
        to cities and overwhelm the already limited social services available in 
        this region: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of the Congress that the Administration, through 
the United States Agency for International Development, make available 
to American private volunteer organizations and United Nations agencies 
an additional $50 million a year for the next two years, to mitigate 
the effects of the cyclones that have devastated the poorest people in 
the second poorest State in India.
                                 <all>