[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 95 (Wednesday, June 25, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H5825-H5828]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TEMPORARY AUTHORITY FOR CONGRESSIONAL HUNGER CENTER TO AWARD BILL
EMERSON AND MICKEY LELAND HUNGER FELLOWSHIPS
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 2474) to require that funds made available for fiscal years
2003 and 2004 for the Bill Emerson and Mickey Leland Hunger Fellowships
be administered through the Congressional Hunger Center, as amended.
The Clerk read as follows:
H.R. 2474
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. TEMPORARY AUTHORITY FOR CONGRESSIONAL HUNGER
CENTER TO AWARD BILL EMERSON AND MICKEY LELAND
HUNGER FELLOWSHIPS.
Notwithstanding the Congressional Hunger Fellows Act of
2002 (section 4404 of Public Law 107-171; 2 U.S.C. 1161),
funds appropriated for fiscal years 2003 and 2004 for the
purpose of providing the Bill Emerson and Mickey Leland
Hunger Fellowships shall be made available to the
Congressional Hunger Center for the purpose of awarding the
fellowships, except that any such funds provided in excess of
$3,000,000 in fiscal year 2003 or $3,000,000 in fiscal year
2004 shall be appropriated to the Congressional Hunger
Fellows Trust Fund established by such Act.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte).
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume, and I rise in support of H.R. 2474, a bill that provides for
the continuation, for 2003 and 2004, of a fellowship program honoring
our colleagues, the Honorable Bill Emerson and the Honorable Mickey
Leland.
Last year, Congress authorized the Congressional Hunger Fellows
Program
[[Page H5826]]
as a part of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. This
provision was included in both the Committee on Agriculture bill and
the law as a memorial to the Honorable Bill Emerson, a former member of
the Committee on Agriculture, and the Honorable Mickey Leland. The
purpose of the fellowships is to develop and train future leaders of
the United States in humanitarian service.
The law establishes an independent agency in the legislative branch
of the U.S. Government, creates a board of trustees to supervise and
direct the program, establishes a Congressional Hunger Fellows trust
fund in the Department of the Treasury that will provide funds from the
interest to help run the program, and authorizes $18 million for the
fund.
While the necessary process to establish a congressional Hunger
Fellows Program has begun, the process is not complete. H.R. 2474
allows the current process to continue utilizing the Congressional
Hunger Center just until the program authorized by the farm bill is
completed. These fellowships provide a way to continue the legacy
established by our former colleagues Bill Emerson and Mickey Leland and
move towards achieving the valued goal of training future leaders of
the United States in humanitarian service, goals I know Members share
with me.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the wife of the late
Congressman Bill Emerson, the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson),
and his successor, for introducing this legislation; and I urge my
colleagues to support H.R. 2474.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such times as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2474, which requires that
funds made available for the Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellowship
and the Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellowships are to be
awarded through the Congressional Hunger Center. This piece of
legislation is needed to ensure that funds already appropriated to
provide hunger fellowships in the fiscal year 2003 are able to be used
for that purpose. In addition, it will ensure that funds made available
in fiscal year 2004 are also available for these fellowships.
In the farm bill, we created the Congressional Fellows Hunger Act of
2002, which authorizes $18 million to a trust to be used as an
endowment to provide domestic and international hunger fellowships. The
program is overseen by a board of trustees, which only recently was
appointed. Because of the time needed to establish the program as
envisioned by the authorizing language, the funds provided for the
fellowships in the fiscal year 2003 agricultural appropriations act are
not available. This bill will allow those funds to be used by the
Congressional Hunger Center for hunger fellowships.
The Congressional Hunger Center was formed in 1993 with a mandate to
lead, speak, and act on behalf of the poor, the hungry, and the victims
of humanitarian emergencies both on a domestic and international level.
The Congressional Hunger Center, through its leadership development
programs and its education, research, and advocacy programs has, as of
2002, graduated over 500 antihunger leaders who address hunger at the
community, national, and international levels.
The fellowships originally awarded by the Congressional Hunger Center
and codified in the Congressional Fellows Hunger Act of 2002 were
designed, as we have heard, to honor the memories of Bill Emerson and
Mickey Leland, who, during their careers in public service, were deeply
interested in helping those in need by their words and by their
actions. Bill Emerson, the distinguished late Representative from the
eighth district of Missouri, and George T. Mickey Leland, the
distinguished late Representative from the 18th district of Texas
demonstrated their commitment to solving the problem of hunger in a
bipartisan manner.
Providing the $3 million in funding to the Congressional Hunger
Center for fiscal years 2003 and 2004 will ensure that the spirit of
these two leaders will live on through the fellowships by making sure
that there will be a future generation of leaders who will pursue
careers in humanitarian service related to hunger.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume
to thank the gentleman from Texas for his support and leadership on
this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman
from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson), who has carried on the fight against
hunger here in the United States and around the world that her late
husband, Bill Emerson, was so well noted for. I thank her for that
work.
Mrs. EMERSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr.
Goodlatte) for yielding me this time and for the graciousness which he
has shown, as well as that of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm),
in allowing us to make the corrections on the legislation that will
permit the Hunger Fellows to proceed with the remarkable work that they
do.
I also want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), because
this bill also goes through IR, and I want to thank Kevin Kramp and
Lynn Gallagher from the Committee on Agriculture, and Frank Record from
the Committee on International Relations, because without their great
assistance we would not be here today.
I also want to thank both the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte)
and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) for the wonderful words
they had to say about my late husband, Bill Emerson, and the commitment
he had throughout his lifetime to prevent hunger wherever it is found.
Mr. Speaker, passage of this bill is critical for the future of the
Bill Emerson and Mickey Leland Hunger Fellowships. The funding for the
24 Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows and the 50 Mickey Leland
International Hunger Fellows will expire, as my colleagues have said,
unless this legislation passes.
These 39 Fellows fight hunger and poverty worldwide. They each earn
just $10,000 helping nutritionally vulnerable populations in urban and
rural communities get food. For example, the Emerson Fellows assist
low-income communities in getting access to fresh fruits and
vegetables, as well as helping to do the same for Federal nutrition
programs for school-aged children and the elderly. The Leland Fellows
work with national and international agencies and faith-based groups to
get school lunches to over 300 million children overseas.
In their work, the Fellows are constantly faced with things that we
do not normally see on a daily basis, threats of terrorism, crime,
AIDS, and, most recently, SARS, while helping the communities in which
they are living formulate solutions to ending hunger and poverty.
For the past 3 years, many may know that agricultural appropriations
and private foundations have funded the Emerson-Leland Fellows through
the Congressional Hunger Center. As my colleagues have mentioned, the
farm bill did authorize an endowment for the Congressional Hunger
Fellows program, which incorporated the current Fellows program
operated by the Congressional Hunger Center. But because operating
funds for the endowment are not yet in place, the Congressional Hunger
Center is left without operating funds to recruit for their future
classes. This legislation will allow the program to continue while we
establish the endowment.
So, again, I want to thank the chairman, the gentleman from Virginia
(Mr. Goodlatte), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), the gentleman
from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), and my good colleague, the gentleman from
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), who helps co-chair the Congressional
Hunger Center, for all the work that they do in helping a problem that
should not exist but, sadly, it does, and, hopefully, one day soon, we
will find a means to make certain that no person on Earth goes hungry.
Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern).
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from
Texas for yielding me this time, and I also applaud his incredible work
on behalf of the hungry around the world and here in the United States.
I also want to thank the chairman of the committee, the gentleman from
Virginia, for bringing this bill so quickly to the House floor for
consideration.
[[Page H5827]]
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2474, authorizing the Bill
Emerson and Mickey Leland Hunger Fellowships and urge its swift passage
by this House. I want to acknowledge the leadership of my friend and
colleague, the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson), and to thank
her for her many contributions to ending hunger here at home and
abroad. She has honored the memory of her husband and our former
colleague, Bill Emerson, in whose honor the National Hunger Fellowships
at the Congressional Hunger Center are named.
I have had the privilege of working closely with the gentlewoman from
Missouri over the past few years, first when we helped create the
Global Food for Education Initiative, known as the George McGovern-
Robert Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition
Program, and now when we serve together as the cochairs of the
Congressional Hunger Center. I admire her leadership and determination,
and I hope to learn a great deal more from her about how best to end
hunger, honor America's farmers, and contribute to increasing food
security for all nations.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2474 will correct a simple error in last year's
farm bill reauthorization that authorized funding for the Bill Emerson
and Mickey Leland Hunger Fellowships, but inadvertently channeled the
monies to the Congressional Hunger Center's endowment rather than
through the Center's program budget. Passage of H.R. 2474 will ensure
that the two fellowship programs are administered and funded through
the Congressional Hunger Center for fiscal year 2003 and fiscal year
2004.
{time} 1100
This adjustment will allow for the endowment to have enough time to
build so it may sustain funding for the Congressional Hunger Center
over the long term without interrupting the Bill Emerson and Mickey
Leland Hunger Fellowships program in the short term. I also thank the
gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson), the gentleman from Texas
(Chairman Bonilla), and the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), the
ranking member on the subcommittee for agricultural appropriations, for
including the appropriate allocations for these hunger fellowships in
the fiscal year 2004 agriculture appropriations bill. I also would like
to express my appreciation to Jim Dyer, the majority staff director for
the Committee on Appropriations, for his help and support on this
matter.
Mr. Speaker, today I have had the privilege of meeting the newest
class of Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellows who are in
Washington for their initial orientation. The Congressional Hunger
Center received 155 applicants for these fellowships, which were
narrowed to 50 finalists, and 15 young men and women were chosen to
receive these fellowships.
The Leland Fellows will work for 2 years on hunger issues, including
a 1-year field placement in countries throughout South Asia, sub-
Saharan Africa and Latin America. The class of 2003-2005 will work in
Thailand, Uganda, Malawi, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Indonesia,
Guatemala, Bangladesh, Mexico, Mauritania, and in East Africa. Their
field placements include national and international nongovernmental
organizations, private commercial organizations, and bilateral and
multilateral agencies. They will spend their second year in the
headquarters of the organizations that sponsor their field placements
where they will focus on policy-making to address the root causes of
hunger.
I know that our friend and former colleague, Mickey Leland, is
looking down on these dedicated young people and is proud that the work
they are doing in his name will create future leaders in the fight on
hunger and poverty.
The Bill Emerson National Hunger fellows Program annually selects
around 20 participants who work for 6 months in rural and urban
community-based organizations across the country involved in fighting
hunger at the local level. Their 6 months is spent in national
nonprofit organizations engaged at the national level in antihunger and
antipoverty work. This year, 24 men and women will represent the 10th
class of Emerson Fellows.
Together, these two hunger fellowship programs, administered and
coordinated by the Congressional Hunger Center, are having a
significant impact on the fight to end hunger in America and around the
world.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge the gentleman from Virginia
(Mr. Wolf) and our former colleague Tony Hall, who were instrumental in
establishing the center 10 years ago. Congress can take great pride in
the support for the Congressional Hunger Center and the Bill Emerson
and Mickey Leland Hunger Fellowship programs. I urge my colleagues to
support H.R. 2474.
Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, this is a good bill. It is a good program. It has the
kind of leadership and oversight from the gentleman from Massachusetts
(Mr. McGovern) and the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson) that we
in Congress appreciate very much. I urge support of the bill. I thank
the chairman for his leadership in this endeavor.
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2474. The
Congressional Hunger Center was established 10 years ago with a mission
of fighting hunger by developing leaders. They have been doing that
ever since.
When I think of the Congressional Hunger Center, I think of my good
friend Ambassador Tony Hall. It was Tony who first got me involved in
fighting hunger. In 1984, he persistently encouraged me to travel to
the Horn of Africa to witness the devastation of the famine. As many of
you know, that experience changed my life.
Many of the Congressional Hunger Center fellows are having similar
experiences right now. There are Bill Emerson fellows who are having
life-changing experiences in 12 locations across the country and Leland
International Fellows in 15 locations throughout the world. The
combination of the life-changing practical and the policy experiences
will equip these young people to be active leaders on hunger issues
wherever they may go.
One of the program's most committed international fellows is Robert
Oliver Davila. Robert was a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa for three
years. He joined the first class of international fellows after being a
manager at the Worcester County Food Bank. Robert visited schools all
over Ethiopia helping them implement the World Food Programme Global
School Lunch Program. Robert monitored and evaluated the impact of the
program on the lives of children, families and communities. Robert is
now working with the Global School Feeding Support Unit in the Strategy
and Policy Division of the World Food Programme.
Sarah Boron, from Dennison University in Ohio, helped develop a model
to assess food and farm issues at Food for Lane County in Eugene,
Oregon. Sarah is now helping local groups form food policy councils
through the Community Food Security Coalition.
Many of us who have supported the Congressional Hunger Center over
the years have maintained a vision of self-sufficiency for the
organization in the future. As some of you know, Congress has been
providing the bulk of the Hunger Center's operating budget each year
through annual appropriations. Last year, the dream of self-sufficiency
came closer to being a reality.
In the 2002 Farm Bill, Congress authorized an endowment to move the
Hunger Center's fellows programs toward self-sufficiency.
Unfortunately, when the appropriations committee provided funding for
the newly authorized endowment, the Congressional Hunger Center was not
able to access any funds for operating the fellows program.
H.R. 2474 will allow the Congressional Hunger Center to access the
funds it needs to operate the fellows program, equipping people like
Roger and Sarah to become leaders in fighting hunger. Equally
important, this legislation does not detract from the vision of an
endowment that allows the fellows program to operate self-sufficiently.
In closing Mr. Speaker, I encourage all my colleagues to support this
legislation, which makes the technical corrections necessary to allow
the Congressional Hunger Center fellows program to continue
uninterrupted, growing leaders to fight hunger around the world.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of
H.R. 2474 requesting that funds be made available for fiscal years 2003
and 2004 for the Bill Emerson and Mickey Leland Hunger Fellowships to
be administered through the Congressional Hunger Center.
The Bill Emerson and Mickey Leland Fellowships provide an opportunity
for young people to invest their time, energy, and dedication to the
cause of fighting hunger around the world. The fellowship was
established in memory of the outstanding contributions of the Honorable
Bill Emerson and the Honorable Mickey Leland both of whom were former
members of Congress.
[[Page H5828]]
Each year approximately twenty participants are selected to
participate in the highly selective Emerson and Leland Fellowship
program. The fellows spend the first six months of their internship
working on local level hunger issues, primarily through community food
banks and local advocacy initiatives. The fellows then spend another
six months in Washington, D.C. working with national organizations
involved in the anti-hunger and poverty movement. This unique and
challenging opportunity embodies the ideals and legacy of both Mr.
Leland and Mr. Emerson.
Mickey Leland in addition to serving as a respected representative of
the 18th Congressional District in Texas, Mr. Leland also served as a
renowned yet humble humanitarian bringing both national and
international attention to several causes including hunger and famine.
With a ``heart as big as Texas'', Mickey Leland served as an active
voice for social change. I am proud to follow him as a representative
of the 18th District. And Bill Emerson over the span of five decades,
contributed significantly to the strengthening of U.S. public policy
and the process to achieve common sense solutions to legitimate real
world problems, namely hunger. Thus the Emerson/Leland Fellowships
provide an opportunity for young people to continue in the footsteps of
these revered statesmen.
Therefore, it is in the spirit of the work of both Mickey Leland and
Bill Emerson that this Congress would like to administer funds secured
from the 2003 and 2004 fiscal years for the Emerson/Leland Fellowship
through the Congressional Hunger Center. The Congressional Hunger
Center is a unique non-profit, anti-hunger leadership organization. The
mission of the center is to train and develop individuals who feel they
can serve in either a domestic and/or international capacity to become
leaders in the fight against hunger and effectively bridge the gap
between service and public policy. The Congressional Hunger Center
serves as a lasting tribute to all those who work to eradicate hunger
but especially Mickey Leland, who was one of the Center's founding
members. As such, it seems only natural that the Emerson/Leland
Fellowship Program receives its funding through the Congressional
Hunger Center.
Mickey Leland once said: ``I cannot get used to hunger and desperate
poverty in our plentiful land. There is no reason for it, there is no
excuse for it, and it is time that we as a nation put an end to it.''
And while we cannot easily put an end to hunger, we can certainly do
our part both individually and collectively to take an active role in
helping to increase awareness and action around global hunger.
Therefore, I stand in full support of H.R. 2474 and hope that my
Congressional colleagues will also express their support for this
resolution as well.
Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Terry). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) that the House
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2474, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of
those present have voted in the affirmative.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be
postponed.
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