[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 58 (Thursday, May 12, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1730
 
  CELEBRATING THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF PUBLIC LAW 480, 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, in a special order on May 10, 1994, this 
Member recalled that this year is the 40th anniversary of the Food for 
Peace Program, also known as the Public Law 480 Program. The history of 
the Food for Peace Program, which was outlined in detail in that 
speech, shows a program that has adapted over the years to the needs of 
the times, while saving literally millions and millions of lives at 
risk from famine and malnutrition. Since it began in 1954, Public Law 
480 has provided about $48 billion worth of U.S. food to countries with 
food shortages.
  The program was last redesigned in 1990 to focus particularly on 
improving food security in countries with significant levels of 
malnutrition, chronic food shortages, and high infant mortality rates. 
Food aid donations in very poor, food-deficit countries are used to 
respond to chronic hunger needs and also to improve long-term food 
security through development programs funded by the local proceeds of 
food sales. Some Public Law 480 food is also donated for use in 
emergencies. Both of these programs are administered by the U.S. Agency 
for International Development [AID]. Food deficit countries that are 
potential future customers for U.S. commercial sales of food can 
receive food aid under a concessional loan program administered by the 
Department of Agriculture.
  My remarks today focus on several difficult current challenges to the 
very essence of the Public Law 480 Program. The first challenge is the 
serious decline in funding levels in the face of ongoing, and even 
escalating, needs for international food aid. The second challenge is 
how to preserve Public Law 480's long-term development programs 
addressing chronic hunger and food insecurity among the poorest people 
in the poorest countries in the world in the face of extraordinary 
emergency food aid needs.


                                funding

  This year, in fiscal 1994, due to cuts in Public Law 480 funding and 
decreases in the availability of Government-held surplus commodities 
that the Commodity Credit Corporation can also donate abroad under the 
section 416 program, total food aid tonnage will be 30 percent less 
than in fiscal year 1993. The President has proposed an additional 17 
percent budget cut in Public Law 480 for fiscal year 1995. If these 
additional cuts are enacted, many targeted assistance programs for the 
chronically hungry and malnourished will have to be curtailed. The 
United States will abandon its longstanding leadership in combating 
world hunger if this trend continues.

  This downward trend in food aid shipments runs counter to the intent 
of the 1990 farm bill law, the most recent statement of U.S. Government 
policy on Public Law 480. This law directs the President to combat 
world hunger and malnutrition by increasing the contributions of food 
aid by the United States and encouraging other donor countries to make 
similar commitments, recognizing the food aid needs for both emergency 
and chronic hunger are expected to grow throughout the decade of the 
nineties.
  It is disturbing to see that programs that meet the needs of the 
hungry and vulnerable are the ones receiving disproportionate cuts in 
the President's international affairs budget proposal for fiscal year 
1995. The Public Law 480 Program alone accounts for substantially more 
than 50 percent of the President's total dollar cuts in all the regular 
programs in the International Affairs--Function 150--budget account. 
The President's budget proposal is so low that it even violates several 
statutory minimum requirements established in the 1990 law for the size 
of the developmental and emergency portions of the Public Law 480 
Program.
  These proposed drastic fiscal year 1995 cuts in Public Law 480 come 
at a time when, as the President stated in his October 16, 1993 World 
Food Day Report to Congress (p. 15),

       An estimated 20 percent of the world's population consumes 
     an inadequate amount of food, and growth failure affects one-
     third of the world's children. More than 40 percent of women 
     worldwide are underweight and/or anaemic, and at least 1 
     billion people around the world are probably affected by one 
     or more nutritional deficiencies.

  The increased demand for food assistance due to the dissolution of 
the former Soviet Union has been added on top of major chronic and 
emergency hunger needs in much poorer countries.


                              emergencies

  Over the last 5 years there has been an increase in the number of 
protracted emergencies, which result from recurring droughts and 
environmental changes as well as warfare and persecution. The number of 
refugees and displaced persons without access to their customary food 
supplies is soaring.
  Up to now, Public Law 480 funding has not been intended as the 
principal U.S. resource for meeting extraordinary emergency needs. 
Within Public Law 480, one-quarter of the title II program designed for 
meeting food aid needs through private voluntary organizations and the 
World Food Programme of the United Nations is all that has been 
regularly designated for emergency use. This is because, in the past, 
Congress would provide supplemental funding for extraordinary or large 
emergencies, such as the $225 million appropriated for the 1984-85 
famine in East Africa, or donate surplus commodities through the 
section 416 program. But at present, Government-held surplus levels are 
so low that surpluses available for foreign donation are estimated to 
be only $75 million in fiscal year 1994 and $25 million for fiscal year 
1995, compared to the actual level of $647 million in fiscal year 1993. 
With Public Law 480 funding planned to decrease by 17 percent in fiscal 
year 1995 and stringent budgetary caps on supplemental appropriations, 
the ability of the United States to respond to emergency needs has been 
greatly hindered.
  The most likely source for additional emergency funding is to shift 
funds by reducing regular Public Law 480 targeted assistance programs 
that help the chronically poor who are nutritionally at risk. These 
programs target the truly needed at the moments when they are greatest 
risk, such as food supplementation for malnourished children and 
pregnant women and food-for-work programs during the ``hungry'' season 
before crops are harvested. These programs are long-term developmental 
interventions that prevent and mitigate disasters by strengthening 
local coping mechanisms. Such programs cannot stop and restart without 
compromising their effectiveness.
  It would be tragic for the lack of proper foresight in budgeting for 
extraordinary emergency food aid needs to force a tradeoff between 
life-saving programs that serve those caught in emergencies and those 
chronically at nutritional risk. This issue is likely to be on the 
front burner within a matter of months. There are preliminary 
assessments that the most severe drought in a decade is arriving in 
greater east Africa, with 23 million people at risk. The $329 million 
requested by the President for emergencies worldwide in fiscal year 
1995 will just be a downpayment for this one area alone, let alone 
meeting needs in Bosnia and a dozen other areas of war and drought.
  Public Law 480 is a program where we do good and do well at the same 
time, and it has the strong and heartfelt support of the American 
people. Moreover, nearly all of the funds of Public Law 480 are spent 
in the United States to purchase and process agricultural commodities 
and to provide transportation and related services. Even though Public 
Law 480 levels have decreased, food aid continues to be an important 
market for agricultural goods and an important cargo for U.S. 
transportation industries. For instance, in fiscal year 1993, food aid 
shipments accounted for 30 percent of wheat flour exports, 20 percent 
of rice exports, 50 percent of soybean oil exports, and 45 percent of 
dry pea and lentil exports.
  The result of Public Law 480 food aid is better nutrition for 
individuals around the world, and also creation of a context of food 
security and stability in which sustainable economic and democratic 
reforms can be sustained.
  The latest set of reforms in Public Law 480 in 1990 have given us a 
well-structured program, focused on making long-lasting improvements in 
the food security of developing countries, with food security defined 
as ``access by all people at all times to sufficient food and nutrition 
for a healthy and productive life.''
  Mr. Speaker, U.S. citizens are proud of the contributions we make to 
responding to the basic need for food worldwide, both through 
commercial exports, Government-financed exports, and food aid 
donations. We in Congress indeed should celebrate the many achievements 
of Public Law 480 through these last 40 years and insure that the 
program is strong and well-funded enough to keep that commitment alive 
in order to meet the newest challenges to worldwide food security.

                          ____________________