[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.
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