[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 56 (Tuesday, May 10, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: May 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
THE FOOD FOR PEACE PROGRAM
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. Bereuter] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this Member rises today, and will speak
again on May 12, in a two-part tribute to, and discussion of, one of
the outstanding programs of the U.S. Government, which has literally
saved the lives of millions and millions of people around the world
during the last four decades. That program is the Food for Peace
Program, also called the Public Law 480 program after the public law
that created the program 40 years ago. Today my remarks will focus on
the history of the Public Law 480 program. My remarks later this week
will focus on the current challenges facing Public Law 480 program in
responding to food security needs worldwide.
On the morning of May 4, 1994, there was a gathering here on Capitol
Hill of several hundred people from around the United States to
recognize the 40th anniversary of the Public Law 480 program. The
several hundred people in attendance included representatives from
farming, food processing, transportation, and relief organizations like
CARE and Catholic Relief Services from all over the country. Members of
Congress and officials from the Department of Agriculture and the U.S.
Agency for International Development also spoke of the many
contributions of the program over the years. Many commented that this
program embodies the heart of America at its best, reaching out with
concrete generosity to those most in need. Mr. C. Payne Lucas,
executive director of Africare, said that just as Public Law 480 was
instrumental in limiting the appeal of communism in poor countries, so
it continues to be needed today to preserve the fragile democracies
that are emerging. This Member was reminded that Mr. James Grant,
executive director of UNICEF, once defined democracy as ``elections,
followed by dinner.''
In these remarks today this Member will briefly recap some of the
changes in the food aid program over the years, and, in the second set
of remarks later this week, point out some of the serious challenges
faced by the Food for Peace Program today.
The Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, was
signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower on July 10, 1954. Since
1955, it has provided about 48 billion dollars' worth of food to
countries with food shortages. The program is reevaluated and
redesigned every 4 to 5 years as part of the general farm bill
legislation that authorizes most food and agricultural programs. The
last farm bill was in 1990; the next one will be in 1995. Funding for
food aid is provided annually as part of the agriculture appropriations
bill. In fiscal year 1994, the Public Law 480 program is funded at a
level of $1.6 billion, most of which is spent to buy commodities in the
United States for donation or sale in poor countries and to pay for
transportation services.
During the early years of the program, the Public Law 480 program
helped dispose of surplus commodities and increase U.S. agricultural
exports as its primary objectives. Concerns that careless dumping could
disrupt local agricultural production and marketing led to redesign of
the program. By the mid-1960's the focus of the program was changed by
Congress to emphasize economic development and foreign policy
objectives, including emergency relief and combating communism in the
Third World. Commodities used in the P.L. 480 program were no longer
required to be in surplus, but could be bought for use in meeting
emergencies and development needs in the Third World.
In the early 1970's the world food situation deteriorated sharply
because of poor weather conditions and other market factors. World food
stocks diminished and commodity prices rose sharply, threatening many
people in poor, food-importing countries with famine. The World Food
Conference in 1974 was a gathering of delegates from 130 nations in
response to this emergency situation. The world community pledged to
boost food production, particularly in poor and food deficit nations,
and to establish a world target of 10 million tons of food assistance
available each year. The U.S. food aid program has continued to be the
largest national effort toward this global commitment, accounting for a
very substantial share of worldwide food aid contributions since then.
Then Public Law 480 legislation throughout the 1970's reflected a
continuing focus on advancing the development of needy countries by
reducing poverty and helping to meet the basic needs of their people.
Private voluntary organizations like CARE and Catholic Relief Services
came to play a predominant role in the management and distribution of
donated food. Also, under the special food for development program,
very poor countries could negotiate forgiveness of U.S. food aid loans
if they undertook acceptable development reforms to improve food
security and rural development.
In the 1980's U.S. food aid played a major role in meeting the
humanitarian needs of the famine in Africa in 1984-85. In 1985 an
additional new food aid distribution channel called Food for Progress
was created to allow grants of food aid to countries committed to
introducing free market agricultural reforms. Rules governing CCC-owned
surplus stocks were also broadened under section 416 to allow foreign
donations of all CCC-held edible commodities as a supplement to the
Public Law 480 program.
Today, as the result of the latest changes in the Food for Peace
program in 1990 farm bill legislation, Public Law 480 food aid is
focused on improving food security in countries with significant levels
of malnutrition, chronic food shortages, and high infant mortality
rates. Food aid can no longer be used as a political reward for foreign
countries, without regard for their degree of need or their potential
as commercial markets for the U.S. Emergency food aid is donated to
provide immediate assistance during famines and man-made disasters.
Developmental food aid meets current food deficit needs and requires
that any local currency proceeds from sales of the donated food in
local markets be reinvested in projects to improve the long-term food
security, health, and productivity of poor and undernourished people.
There also continues to be a food aid credit program for food-deficit
countries that need concessional financing terms and have potential to
become commercial markets for U.S. commodities.
Over the years food assistance has decreased in absolute terms and as
a percentage of total U.S. exports. In the 1950's and early 1960's,
total U.S. grain exports ranged between 10 and 30 million tons a year,
and more than 50 percent of grain exports were shipped under the Public
Law 480 program. In the late 1980's and 1990's, total U.S. grain
exports have ranged between 80 and 100 million tons a year,
representing a dramatic increase in commercial sales, and food aid has
accounted for only about 7 percent of total grain exports and 2 to 4
percent of total U.S. agricultural exports.
The second part of my remarks on U.S. food assistance programs later
this week will focus on several difficult challenges to the Public Law
480 program at present. The first is the serious decline in funding
levels in the face of ongoing, even escalating, needs for international
food aid. The second is the challenge of preserving food aid programs
that address chronic hunger and food insecurity through long-term
development in the face of mounting emergency food aid needs.
____________________