[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 6 (Tuesday, January 27, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H101-H102]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE U.S. MUST DO MORE TO FIGHT CHILD HUNGER

  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on December 11, 102 Members of Congress 
sent a bipartisan letter to President Bush asking him to restore the 
original funding level for the George McGovern-Robert Dole 
International Food for Education Program when he submits his fiscal 
year 2005 budget next week.
  The McGovern-Dole program began as a $300 million pilot program in 
2001. It provided at least one nutritious meal each day to nearly 7 
million children in 38 countries. The catch? These children had to 
attend school in order to get the meals.
  Providing food to malnourished children in schools is one of the most 
effective strategies to fight hunger and poverty. Where programs are 
offered, enrollment and attendance rates increase significantly, 
particularly for girls. Instead of working or searching for food to 
combat hunger, children have the chance to go to school. Providing food 
at school is a simple but effective means to improve literacy and help 
poor children break out of poverty.
  The McGovern-Dole program helps us to achieve many of our foreign 
policy goals and communicates America's compassion to those around the 
world. And at the end of the day, it will be programs like McGovern-
Dole that will ultimately triumph over poverty and terror.
  One year ago, in February 2003, the U.S. Department of Agriculture 
evaluated this program, and the conclusions were overwhelmingly 
positive. In addition to significantly reducing the incidence of hunger 
among school-age children, the program was also found to promote 
educational opportunity, especially for girls, among some of the 
poorest populations in the world.
  Sadly, in fiscal year 2003, McGovern-Dole received only $100 million 
in funding, reducing the number of children served to scarcely more 
than 2 million worldwide in just 28 countries. In fiscal year 2004, 
President Bush only asked for $50 million, and acting under severe 
budget constraints, this is what Congress provided. In brief, for 
fiscal year 2004, the United States will literally be taking food out 
of the mouths of yet another 1 million hungry children and forcing many 
of their families to remove them from school.
  The senior Senator from Kansas and the chairman of the Senate 
Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts, has stated on a number of 
occasions his belief that the McGovern-Dole program serves our national 
security interests by attacking the breeding grounds of terrorism, 
hunger, poverty, ignorance, and despair, while at the same time 
ensuring that children are fed in settings where they receive a quality 
education rather than hate-filled indoctrination. But rather than 
expanding this program to reach even more school-age children, to help 
stabilize communities devastated by HIV/AIDS, and to support HIV/AIDS 
orphans so that they might contribute to the future of their nations 
rather than burden them, we cut this program once again.
  On November 26, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 
released its 2003 report on hunger. It found that after falling 
steadily during the 1990s, hunger is again on the rise. In the 
developing world, the number of malnourished people grew by an average 
of 4.5 million a year for the past 3 years. The report also found that 
hunger exacerbates the AIDS crisis, drives rural people into the 
cities, and forces women and children to trade sex for food and money.
  Yet over the past 3 years, we have cut funding for the McGovern-Dole 
school feeding program so that it is now one-sixth of what it once was. 
This means that 84 out of every 100 children we were feeding and 
schooling under this program in 2001 have been cut off from this food 
source. They now either go to school hungry or have once again dropped 
out of school.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a disgrace, plain and simple.
  Mr. Speaker, we are going in the wrong direction, not just for the 
children of the world, but for the security of our Nation. If as a 
nation we are committed to defeating terrorism, then we must increase 
and fully fund programs like McGovern-Dole, along with other food aid 
and development programs.
  If as a nation we are committed to addressing hunger, poverty, 
illiteracy,

[[Page H102]]

and ignorance, then we must increase and restore full funding to the 
McGovern-Dole program and our other food aid and development programs.
  And if we, as a nation, are committed to helping educate the children 
of the world, especially girls, then we must increase and restore full 
funding to the McGovern-Dole program.
  Mr. Speaker, I call on President Bush and the congressional 
leadership to restore full funding in fiscal year 2005 to the George 
McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education Program. It is 
truly a matter of life or death.

                                Congress of the United states,

                                Washington, DC, December 11, 2003.
     Hon. George W. Bush,
     President of the United States,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. President: We are writing to urge you to provide 
     $300 million in your Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Proposal for the 
     George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education 
     and Child Nutrition Program. We believe it is urgent to 
     restore funding for this program at levels similar to those 
     of the original pilot program.
       We strongly believe this funding is critical for sustaining 
     and expanding the McGovern-Dole Program in order to combat 
     terrorism and to help build and consolidate democracy in the 
     Middle East, southern Asia, the Near East, and in other 
     regions critical to U.S. national security. As you are aware, 
     the McGovern-Dole Program provides donations of U.S. 
     agricultural products, as well as financial and technical 
     assistance, for school feeding and maternal and child 
     nutrition programs in low-income countries. We note that 
     recommendations made by the General Accounting Office (GAO) 
     in February 2002 on how to strengthen and improve the 
     administration and implementation of school feeding programs 
     were fully integrated into the law establishing the McGovern-
     Dole Program, enhancements that we believe contribute to its 
     success.
       Both the initial pilot program and the current McGovern-
     Dole Program have a proven track record at reducing the 
     incidence of hunger among school-age children and improving 
     literacy and primary education, especially among girls, in 
     areas devastated by war, hunger, poverty, HIV/AIDS, and the 
     mistreatment or marginalization of women and girls. School 
     meals, teacher training, and related support have helped 
     boost school enrollment and academic performance. McGovern-
     Dole nutrition and school feeding programs also improve the 
     health and learning capacity of children both before they 
     enter school and during the years of primary and elementary 
     school.
       In February 2003, the U.S. Department of Agriculture 
     evaluated the McGovern-Dole pilot program and found 
     significant positive results. Specifically--
       ``The results to date show measurable improvements in 
     school enrollment, including increased access by girls. In 
     projects involving more than 4,000 participating schools, the 
     WFP reports an overall enrollment increase exceeding 10 
     percent, with an 11.7 percent increase in enrollment by 
     girls. The PVO's report an overall enrollment increase of 
     5.75 percent in GFE-participating schools. In some projects, 
     increases in enrollment were as high as 32 percent compared 
     with enrollment rates over the previous three years.'' (USDA, 
     The global Food for Education Pilot Program: A Review of 
     Project Implementation and Impact, page 2, February 2003)
       We firmly believe that these programs reduce the risk of 
     terrorism by helping to eliminate the hopelessness and 
     despair that breed terrorism. American products and 
     commodities are directly associated with hunger alleviation 
     and educational opportunity, encouraging support and good 
     will for the United States in these communities and 
     countries.
       We strongly urge that you restore the capacity of this 
     critically important program by providing $300 million for 
     Fiscal Year 2005.
           Sincerely,
       James P. McGovern, Frank Wolf, Jo Ann Emerson, Marcy 
     Kaptur, Doug Bereuter, Tom Lantos, Earl Pomeroy, Amo 
     Houghton, Barbara Lee, Sam Graves, Edolphus Towns, Don 
     Manzullo, Vic Snyder, Jim Leach, Tammy Baldwin, Christopher 
     Smith (NJ), Marty Meehan, Doc Hastings (WA), Dennis Moore, 
     George Nethercutt, John Olver, Jerry Moran (KS), Bennie G. 
     Thompson (MS), Todd Tiahrt, Adam Schiff, David Price, Maurice 
     Hinchey, James Oberstar, Betty McCollum,
       William Delahunt, Bob Filner, Jan Schakowsky, Sheila 
     Jackson Lee, Leonard Boswell, Gary Ackerman, George Miller, 
     Dale Kildee, Julia Carson (IN), Albert Wynn, Carolyn Maloney, 
     Bobby Rush, Diana Christensen, Raul M. Grijalva, Bob 
     Etheridge, Pete Stark, Jim McDermott, Jim Matheson, Jerry 
     Costello, Mike Capuano, Joseph Crowley, Susan Davis (CA), 
     Rosa DeLauro, Martin Frost, Rick Larsen (WA), Sander Levin,
       Ed Markey, John Tierney, Lynn Woolsey, Donald Payne, Hilda 
     Solis, Mike McNulty, Elijah Cummings, Mike Doyle, Joseph 
     Hoeffel, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Bernie Sanders, Sam Farr, 
     Neil Abercrombie, Jim Marshall, Charles Gonzalez, Ruben 
     Hinojosa, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Earl Blumenauer, Robert 
     Wexler, Rob Andrews, Madeleine Z. Bordallo, Jose Serrano,
       Maxine Waters, Lane Evans, Barney Frank, Ron Kind, Sanford 
     Bishop, Jr., Sherrod Brown (OH), Henry Waxman, Steve Rothman, 
     Nancy Pelosi, Dennis Kucinich, Tom Allen, Jim Moran (VA), 
     Rick Boucher, Brad Sherman, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Lois Capps, 
     Karen McCarthy, Patrick Kennedy (RI), Jane Harman, Alcee 
     Hastings (FL), William Jefferson, Chris Van Hollen, Chaka 
     Fattah, Stephen Lynch, Charles Rangel.

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