[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 61 (Tuesday, May 17, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                FEMA EMERGENCY FOOD AND SHELTER PROGRAM

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I state my strong opposition to a proposal 
in the President's budget for fiscal year 1995 to transfer the 
administration of the Emergency Food and Shelter Program from the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] to the Department of Housing 
and Urban Development [HUD]. For over 10 years, the Emergency Food and 
Shelter Program has been a very successful program that is exemplified 
by a partnership between FEMA and 6 highly creditable and effective 
national nonprofits.
  This partnership is responsible for a program that has been able to 
deliver aid both effectively and efficiently to countless thousands of 
persons in thousands of communities facing hunger and homelessness. In 
particular, the Emergency Food and Shelter Program provides assistance 
to over 10,500 nonprofit and governmental local agencies which provide 
direct service to homeless and hungry people nationwide. This program 
has distributed over $1 billion since it began in 1983 and, in many 
States, is the largest source of Federal assistance available to 
service providers for homeless people. This program funds food banks, 
soup kitchens, and shelters as well as purchasing directly food and 
shelter for the homeless. It also provides emergency homelessness 
prevention services, notably rent or utility assistance, for 
individuals on the verge of becoming homeless.
  What makes this program even more special and unusual is that over 97 
percent of the funding goes directly to people needing emergency food 
and shelter; this means that less than 3 percent of the funding goes to 
administrative costs.
  I urge my colleagues to oppose the transfer of the Emergency Food and 
Shelter Program from FEMA to HUD. As they say: Don't fix it if it isn't 
broken. This program isn't broken and it doesn't need fixing. This 
program does not need to be transferred to HUD; to do so risks the 
tremendous success of the program.

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