[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 148 (Wednesday, October 31, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H7549-H7553]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H.R. 2330, AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, 
FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                 2002.

  Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the 
Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 2330) making appropriations for 
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and 
Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
2002, and for other purposes, with a Senate amendment thereto, disagree 
to the Senate amendment, and agree to the conference asked by the 
Senate.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.


                Motion to Instruct Offered by Ms. Kaptur

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to instruct conferees.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Ms. Kaptur moves that the manager on the part of the House 
     at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses 
     on the bill, H.R. 2330, be instructed to insist on the 
     highest possible levels of funding permitted for 
     international food activities under P.L. 480, Title II.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 7 of rule XX, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Bonilla) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur).
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Let me say to my colleagues and to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Bonilla), our esteemed chairman of the subcommittee, that this motion 
is simple and to the point. It instructs our conferees to agree to the 
highest possible level of funding for international food programs 
within the scope of the conference, including the Title II Public Law 
480 Food for Peace program.
  Mr. Speaker, perhaps never in the history, in the recent history of 
our great country have we had a greater need to use our food power to 
build a more peaceful world. Three matters individually and 
collectively within our purview in this legislation justify the need 
for the highest possible level of funding. I just wish to mention them 
and make a few remarks.
  The first is the Global Food for Education Initiative.
  The second is the ongoing need for an expanding emergency need for 
food assistance for Afghan refugees and other desperate people in and 
around that beleaguered country.
  Thirdly, to offset the administration's proposal to reduce the 
section 416 commodity assistance with the resultant increase in 
dependency on the Public Law 480 Title II program for vitally needed 
development assistance throughout the world.
  It is interesting to think about the conditions which breed 
revolution and instability, and to observe how often that desperate 
people living in desperate conditions in the countryside provide the 
seed bed for political instability. If we think historically, just for 
a second, back to the middle part of the 20th century, the countryside 
became the killing fields inside what became the Soviet Union through 
the forced starvation of millions and millions of people by Joseph 
Stalin and his consequent success in gaining control over what became 
the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. The countryside was dead 
center in what happened with control of the food supply.
  If we think to China and the revolution in 1949 and the role of Mao 
Tse-tung in moving people back to the countryside, the rural 
countryside became the seed bed for the revolution and the consequences 
that followed, and the imposition of will over 1 billion people.
  Now, today, in the Middle East, in East Africa, we have witnessed the 
powerful instability that can grow from food insecurity with little to 
eat and little to hope for; and it is not just

[[Page H7550]]

in Afghanistan where people are at prefamine levels with millions that 
have fled that sad state of affairs. If we also think about the 
madrassas operating inside Pakistan that use the lure of milk to feed 
hundreds and thousands of little boys who are then systematically 
taught to hate anyone whose religion is unlike theirs.
  Food is being used as a weapon in the conflict that we face with 
Enduring Freedom.

                              {time}  1215

  It is best that we understand it, and that we use the power that we 
have with our food commodities to help build a more peaceful world.
  The Global Food for Education Initiative, the program so strongly 
supported and developed by Senators Bob Dole and George McGovern, can 
be an important piece of the solution.
  Why can we not think about using the Global Food for Education 
Program to offset what the madrassas are doing in Pakistan, and to feed 
children out of our good will, and to provide educational opportunity 
to both boys and girls, and hopefully produce new political leaders for 
the future that will embrace the world in a more fair open manner?
  This body has said we would like to see the funding for this program 
continued, and we would like to see permanent authorization as part of 
the farm bill, the authorizing legislation itself being H.R. 1700.
  So we want this motion to instruct to place some responsibility on 
these conferees to see that the Global Food for Education Initiative, 
and the hard work that the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) 
and others have done, to make that a permanent authorization and to 
receive the support it deserves inside this conference.
  Secondly, in terms of the starvation and pre-starvation levels that 
people in Afghanistan and the refugees are facing, there is no question 
about the ongoing immediate need for expanding emergency food programs 
for those refugees, whether they be inside the country, if we can find 
a way to deliver it, or to the adjoining nations, during our Nation's 
conduct of Enduring Freedom.
  We know that the United Nations World Food Program has predicted that 
we will need to provide a minimum level of assistance for 7.5 million 
people, and that such aid could last for well over 1 year. Even though 
the administration has already suggested more resources will be 
provided, and has done so out of the emergency funding we adopted 
earlier this year, there is no doubt that more will be needed; and not 
only direct food, but once stability reigns again, to help people 
develop their own abilities to raise food so there can be a more 
permanent chance for development in that region.
  Once we complete emergency assistance, we have to look at meaningful 
development assistance so we can leave the region in a more self-
sustaining condition than it is in, obviously, today.
  If we want to change the concerns about poverty, malnutrition, and 
how people are treated, including women, then we must also have long-
term development goals in mind, and that is where food for peace, food 
for progress, section 416, are answers that make the most sense.
  Finally, before yielding time, let me say that the administration's 
proposal to reduce section 416 commodity assistance may have made sense 
before September 11. I do not really think it did. But after September 
11, it makes absolutely no sense at all, because it will force the 
resultant increase in dependency on the Public Law 480 title II 
program, which we need for the type of developmental assistance in the 
Middle East, in East Africa, and other places where instability reigns.
  If we are to have longer programs that will end world hunger, a goal 
to which our Nation leads the world and has subscribed to throughout 
our existence, then we have to be sure that any emergency food 
assistance is followed up with a program of meaningful development 
assistance, and that is why these programs were invented.
  This program benefits American farmers and our States seeking to 
develop new markets for our commodities as the largest food-producing 
Nation in the world, as well as the countries receiving the benefit of 
the program, targeted to those who are hungry in the urban areas and to 
development in the rural countryside, to stem the instability that we 
know has bred the revolutions of modern history.
  Public Law 480 has a long history of turning former recipients into 
long-standing customers and into stable political allies.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the esteemed 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), who has been such a leader 
on these international food programs.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding time to 
me, and I am very glad to see and strongly support this motion to 
instruct the conferees to support the highest level of food aid 
assistance.
  I believe that United States food aid programs will play a critical 
role in averting disaster in Afghanistan and in the Near East. Even 
before the tragic events of September 11, the United States was the 
largest contributor of food and humanitarian assistance to the people 
of Afghanistan through the United Nations World Food Program.
  But I also believe that the United States should support these 
programs worldwide. The United States has long fought to end hunger and 
poverty, and these programs are a critical part of that development 
effort. They reflect the compassionate, humanitarian character of the 
American people.
  As my colleagues know, along with the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. 
Kaptur) and the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson) and the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hall) and over 100 Members of this House, I 
support the establishment of the Global Food for Education Initiative 
that would fund school feeding programs around the world, including 
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and throughout the Mideast.
  This program was inspired by two great leaders of our country, former 
Senators George McGovern and Bob Dole, and as I said, has enjoyed 
incredible bipartisan support, not only in the House but in the other 
body.
  School feeding programs accomplish a number of things. First, they 
get food and nutrition to hungry kids. We all know that hungry children 
cannot learn.
  Second, school feeding programs increase school attendance. In 
various pilot programs, as in the pilot program of this Global Food for 
Education Initiative, we have seen school attendance increase 
dramatically, especially among girls. Education is really a key tool in 
combatting some of the terrible effects of poverty and ignorance and 
illiteracy.
  We talk about how do we deal with intolerance and hate around the 
world. Education is the way to do that. So this program would actually 
get more young people into schools, and I think it is an effective tool 
in combatting the types of conditions where terrorists tend to seek 
recruits.
  I am pleased that we have been able to get some language in the farm 
bill in the House, and hopefully the other body will follow suit, but I 
would call on President Bush to extend this particular program through 
fiscal year 2002.
  I want to thank the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) again for her 
incredible leadership on this and so many other food aid issues. I 
support this motion to instruct conferees to support the highest levels 
of funding for U.S. food aid programs.
  I think this is an important motion. This is an important statement 
for the Members of this House to make.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, I thank the 
gentleman from Massachusetts so very much for speaking out again today, 
and for providing the type of national leadership that we need in order 
to make this Global Food for Education Program permanent.
  I think, if the gentleman might want to engage in a colloquy at this 
point, I know he has thought a great deal about how our commodities 
leverage food from other countries, and the participation of other 
nations in this Global Food for Education Initiative.
  Perhaps the gentleman would wish to place some of that on the Record 
at this time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, what we are proposing here is not just a 
program where the United States goes it alone. What we are trying to do 
here is inspire other countries around the world to follow suit, and to 
make a

[[Page H7551]]

 strong effort to eliminate hunger among the world's children.
  We have the ability to do that. Our country, working with other 
countries around the world, we can eliminate hunger among children. We 
could eliminate hunger among the entire world if we had the political 
will to do so.
  As Senator McGovern has said time and time again, hunger is a 
political condition. It is something that we can solve if we have the 
political will to do so.
  Our goal here is to have the United States be a leader in this 
effort, but to go to other countries around the world, as we have been 
trying to do, to get them to participate in this program. So it is a 
worldwide effort, a worldwide effort to combat hunger.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for those comments. I 
am reminded of the day that we had the special press conference up here 
in the Capitol with Senators McGovern and Dole, these two dogged World 
War II veterans who could be doing anything else with their lives at 
this point, yet they were here on the Global Food for Education Program 
because they as veterans understand what it takes to build peace.

  What a contribution they are still making, though not legislators or 
Members of Congress at this point in their lives, to have an influence 
to do what is good in the world as Americans, regardless of party. We 
owe them so much. They are giving their great genius to the country, 
and we owe them such thanks for that, and for making a difference 
working with us, especially now.
  I wait for the day when the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Bonilla) and 
the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) and I can go into 
Pakistan and help to distribute maybe some of this milk, and to take a 
look at what is being taught in private schools that are being 
established there as we try to help part of the world that so greatly 
needs greater stability, to use our food programs as the real fulcrum 
of a better future for millions of children.
  Mr. McGOVERN. As the gentlewoman pointed out earlier, too, this 
really puts our farmers in the forefront of this effort to make this 
world a better place.
  The food we are talking about, much of it would be grown right here 
in the United States by American farmers who would also benefit from 
this program, and I have often felt that we could do more around the 
world to promote stability and human rights by utilizing this 
incredible surplus we have in our farm commodities right here in the 
United States.
  Again, there is an incredible need out there, and as the gentlewoman 
pointed out, we have been engaged in these incredible humanitarian 
efforts in the past. I think we need to redouble our efforts, 
especially in the wake of September 11. We need to bring the world 
community together. We can make this world a better place. We can 
eliminate hunger among children. We can promote global education. We 
can make this world a safer, less violent, more tolerant place. Again, 
I thank the gentlewoman for her motion.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and I yield myself 
such time as I may consume.
  I just want to place on the Record, as we talk about this, if we look 
at the hijackers here that did such damage to our country, 15 of 19 of 
them came from what is now Saudi Arabia. If we look at the areas of 
Saudi Arabia they came from, they came from the rural, southern parts 
of the nation.
  Other nations have been subjected to terrorist attacks, but if we 
really see where many of the Shiite and Sunni fundamentalists who are 
committing most of these acts come from, they come from parts of the 
country that never received support from their own governments. So 
therefore, these are breeding grounds for the discontent that is 
destabilizing that part of the world, and now our part of the world.
  I know from every single farmer in my region to every single farmer 
across this country, they know they can be a part of the answer to 
retooling for peace using food as the fulcrum for a better future. I 
know the gentleman sees this in his mind's eye, and we can do so much 
good if we can get even our own government to recognize the power of 
people who have been fed, and that those who would seek to do harm in 
their own regions or in others would have less cause for action.
  It is too bad that the world has to move to this point, but I will 
say, in defense of our country, prior to September 11 there was one 
Nation providing the majority of food commodities inside Afghanistan, 
and it was the United States of America, through the World Food 
Program.
  So we have tried to make an effort. In some of these other nations, I 
think it has been more difficult to get the governments to be willing 
to allow food commodities and assistance to flow to some of these rural 
areas that may not be looked upon favorably by the central governments. 
But I think people may and these nations may be rethinking the damage 
that has been caused by ignoring major segments of the population that 
then are underdeveloped and underfed, and are prime targets to be lured 
by those who would want to create harm and instability, and to create a 
political movement that grows out of the poverty and deprivation of 
huge segments of the nations of the Middle East and of East Africa.
  So I know that we have other Members who are desirous of speaking on 
this subject. We have been hoping that they would make it to the floor 
from their committee meetings. They do not appear to be here at the 
moment, so I think we are going to have to move on with the 
legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Chairman Bonilla) so 
very much for his leadership on this, and for his support.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the motion of the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur). I know this has been an issue she has been working 
on long before the current crisis that exists in Afghanistan, and this 
program has proven to be very beneficial in this area as we undertake 
our mission there.
  But again, well before this situation arose, the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) has been a leader on this issue through her 
subcommittee work, and well before that, as well. I commend her for her 
longtime commitment to this issue.

                              {time}  1230

  We have no objection and, in fact, we support this motion 
enthusiastically.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), the very able member of our 
subcommittee, who has been such a leader on not just domestic food 
programs but world food programs. We thank her for leaving her 
committee meeting in order to come to the floor to discuss this very 
important motion to instruct.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. 
Kaptur) for the motion to instruct and I rise in strong support of this 
motion.
  This motion would add vital funds to international aid programs that 
help both citizens of poor countries and it helps American farmers. 
Now, more than ever, since the attack of September 11, we must fund 
these programs at the highest levels possible.
  In the last 50 years almost 400 million people worldwide have died 
from hunger and from being poor. That is three times the number of 
people killed in all wars fought in the 20th century. Today almost 800 
million people, about one-sixth of the population of the world's 
developing countries, do not have enough food. Two hundred million are 
children.
  U.S. food aid is essential in fighting world hunger. It has been 
instrumental in averting a famine in the Horn of Africa. It has helped 
redevelop Bosnia's agricultural sector and feed more than 50,000 
children in Haitian schools and hospitals.
  Food aid empowers people, families, communities. It enables them to 
break out of a cycle of hunger and poverty and return to lives of 
dignity. On a broader scale, food aid helps countries improve their 
people's health, their incomes, and their living conditions. It helps 
them progress forward as a nation. And at the same time, the food aid 
helps our farmers across agricultural sectors, wheat, soybeans, rice,

[[Page H7552]]

peas, milk to name a few; in one of the darkest times of our 
agricultural history. It has helped them to sell more of their products 
and keep their farms and their families secure. At a time when family 
farms are struggling day-to-day for existence, international food aid 
offers them hope.
  After the tragic events of September 11, more than ever the United 
States needs to reach out to our neighbors. Our core principles of 
justice, liberty and opportunity are what makes this Nation strong. We 
must continue to live by them and promote them. We must continue to 
provide assistance, support developing nations. We must let these 
countries know that despite the unspeakable act of terror against our 
Nation, we will continue to stand strong with them in their fight to 
improve the lives of their citizens.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) 
for such an eloquent statement and for her leadership on international 
food programs as well as our domestic programs like WIC and all of the 
Food and Drug Administration programs on which you have worked so hard 
in the subcommittee. We are truly fortunate to have you as a Member of 
this Congress and Connecticut certainly has made a very good choice in 
sending you here.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to just mention before calling on our dear 
able colleague from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton), that it is probably 
important as we talk about this motion to instruct to acknowledge the 
courage, the dedication and the patriotism of the workers from the U.S. 
Agency for International Development and the World Food Program who 
have been working under extremely difficult conditions, certainly in 
the Middle East and Central Asia, but in Africa, in Indonesia, in so 
many other places on our globe.
  They do not get a great deal of publicity. Over the years so many 
have lost their lives. They in my judgment are as important as any 
person serving our Nation and we want to thank them, and we want to let 
them know that this Congress understands the heroism of their work and 
the great humanitarian role that they play in treating all people 
equally and bringing the bounty of this land to places that most 
Americans will never see. We wish them to know the depth of our thanks 
and respect that we hold for the work that they do largely 
unacknowledged.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman 
from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton), a very high ranking member of our 
Committee on Agriculture. If the word is agriculture, if the word is 
leadership, if the word is development, she is at the front of the 
line.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gutknecht). The Chair would announce the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) has 7 minutes remaining.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me 
time. I thank her for her leadership and for the motion to instruct 
that we will indeed instruct the conferees to go to the higher level 
for this very important program, Public Law 480.
  This is a program that is in place and has been doing good work. It 
has been doing well for our farmers because indeed our farmers have 
benefitted from the abundance that we have, an ongoing inventory that 
we can now use to do very good deeds around the world. So many of our 
programs have been very effective in relieving hunger. There is the 
Food for Peace, Food for Development. There are various programs under 
the Public Law 480. I am very pleased that we are recognizing this as a 
tool for not only our agricultural expansion but also a tool for our 
relief.
  Earlier this morning I was in a discussion where we were talking 
about what other things could be done in this whole conflict in terms 
of terrorism, particularly in Afghanistan and the region. The mere 
ability to help people to feed themselves was given as a strategy.
  Well, guess what? This program can be used and we think that we could 
expand that. Obviously, they had a program that was going to be 
modelled a little differently; but there is no reason we cannot use 
this program to supplement whatever comes out of that initiative in 
terms of responding to the refugees. I read yesterday about the 
children of the garbage, they are called, out of Los Angeles, where 
kids go through scavenging enough products to sell and recycle so they 
can buy enough food to feed their families.
  If we could think of this as one way of stabilizing families who are 
suffering from hunger, but more than that, it could be used as a tool 
to bring stability where we are fighting and have a military strategy. 
This could be a part of our diplomatic approach, is to use our 
development of agriculture and our U.S. AID.
  We pulled AID into our State Department. For what reason? To use it 
as a tool that we can have as our international policy. So our food 
programs that we have through the Public Law 480 certainly is a tool I 
think is underutilized and I want to expand it.
  There are many food programs I could mention. The gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) mentioned the Global Food Program, which I am very 
much aware of, and the Global School Lunch Program. We are very pleased 
that is moving along and my colleague's leadership there has been 
evident, and we are very pleased Congress is moving in that direction.
  I commend this amendment, but more than that, I commend our 
understanding that we can use food as one of the tools in our arsenal 
for peace and stability as well as we respond to the hunger and the 
needs not only in Africa and India but also in the very troubled area 
that we are involved in, Afghanistan and that whole region.
  This is a significant beginning and I hope it leads to it.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton) for that 
very generous statement and strong support and also for her continuing 
leadership on so many fronts. I know that some of the initiatives that 
the gentlewoman has taken on for Africa, for example, using these 
programs will be the first time that farmer to farmer programs and 
modernization programs will be used for development in rural Africa in 
areas that so desperately need attention, and I hope that the people of 
North Carolina understand the genius that they have sent here in 
allowing the gentlewoman to serve in our Congress, and I thank the 
gentlewoman so very much for being here with us today.
  In closing, Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to say, as we look at the 
range of what America can do in order to promote a more peaceful world, 
what other programs have such scope as these? We are talking here about 
emergency assistance for Afghan refugees and food inside Afghanistan.
  These programs are being used currently in places like Lebanon where 
for the first time in the history of our country we have taken food 
commodities such as wheat and soy oil, sold them inside Lebanon, and 
now we are helping to redevelop villages, very poor, poor villages that 
did not even have water rights at the Lebanese-Israeli border in order 
to try to build a more peaceful world.
  What other programs do we know that have this kind of range? If we 
think about the farmer to farmer programs that the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton) was talking about in Africa or those that 
operate in the Caribbean, here we have programs that operate globally, 
using the bounty of this land being a win-win, helping our farmers and 
our rural communities bolster their income and yet, in my opinion, 
being the most important development bank that this country has in 
place with vast experience in every corner of the world.
  So as we vote on this motion to instruct today and ultimately move 
our agriculture appropriation bill, we certainly would ask for the 
membership's full support of our international food programs, 
particularly at this time in our Nation's history being front and 
center and well understood as providing us a path to a more peaceful 
future.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Speaker, at this time I have no additional speakers, 
and I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gutknecht). Without objection, the 
previous question is ordered on the motion to instruct.

[[Page H7553]]

  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct 
offered by the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur).
  The motion was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the Chair appoints the 
following conferees:
  Messrs. Bonilla, Walsh, Kingston, Nethercutt, Latham, Mrs. Emerson, 
Messrs. Goode, LaHood, Young of Florida, Ms. Kaptur, Ms. DeLauro, and 
Messrs. Hinchey, Farr of California, Boyd, and Obey.
  There was no objection.

                          ____________________