[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 11 (Tuesday, February 3, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H254-H255]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   U.S. FUNDING CUTS MEAN GREATER HUNGER, ILLITERACY AND POVERTY FOR 
                       CHILDREN AROUND THE WORLD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 20, 2004, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the President released his 
fiscal year 2005 budget proposal. Over the next few days there will be 
many speeches and analyses of his funding proposals. I would like to 
describe how previous budget cuts have affected just one program that 
both reduces hunger among children around the world and gets these kids 
into school. The George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for 
Education Program began in 2001 with a $300 million pilot program. 
Using American surplus commodities, organizations such as Catholic 
Relief Services, Save the Children and Mercy Corps and the U.N. World 
Food Program carried out school feeding programs in over 40 countries. 
Seven million children received at least one nutritious meal every day 
in a school setting through this program.
  Last year, USDA evaluated these programs and found them to be very 
effective in reducing hunger and dropout rates among many of the 
world's most vulnerable children. Enrollment, attendance and academic 
performance increased, especially among girls. In short, providing food 
for education gave poor children, including girls, a new future. 
Unfortunately, since 2002, when Congress made this initiative 
permanent, McGovern-Dole has suffered significant funding cuts. In 
fiscal year 2003, President Bush only asked for and received $100 
million. And now in fiscal year 2004, the program will receive only $50 
million.
  What does it mean for a program like McGovern-Dole to go from $300 
million to $100 million? It means literally that food was taken away 
from nearly 5 million hungry children and many of their families were 
forced to take them out of school. In Nicaragua, 339,000 preschool and 
primary school children benefiting from McGovern-Dole were cut off from 
this food source. In El Salvador, another 45,000 children stopped 
receiving food at school. In Honduras, anemia among children benefiting 
from McGovern-Dole was reduced by 50 percent. Sadly, 167,000 of those 
children have now been cut off from the program. In Peru, 70,000 
children living in areas of high chronic malnutrition no longer receive 
meals or snacks in school. In Colombia, where we routinely send 
hundreds of millions of dollars each year in military and security aid, 
we ended McGovern-Dole funding, forcing USAID to pick up the costs and 
stopping a planned expansion of the program to 165,000 more children.
  In 2003, I visited one of the McGovern-Dole programs in Colombia. I 
was told by mothers, fathers, grandmothers and community leaders how 
the school and the meals were the one stable reality in these 
children's uncertain lives, and often the only food these children 
receive. And I was told time and again how these kids often leave home 
and join one of the guerilla or paramilitary groups simply because

[[Page H255]]

these groups can provide them a daily meal.
  So, thanks to our funding cuts, we are robbing money from USAID 
development programs to pick up the costs originally covered under 
McGovern-Dole. Does this make sense to anyone? School feeding programs 
in Chad and Kenya were also especially hard hit by the McGovern-Dole 
cutbacks, and 125,000 children in Congo and 35,000 in Eritrea also lost 
their funding. In Vietnam, the McGovern-Dole program administered by 
Land O'Lakes that provided meals to over 700,000 children was 
eliminated. A similar program in Bangladesh reaching 350,000 children 
has just run out of funds. Mr. Speaker, the list goes on and on and on.
  Eliminating these programs also means that food produced by our 
hardworking farmers no longer finds its way to hungry school children 
around the world. Mr. Speaker, the McGovern-Dole program deserves to 
have its funding restored, not just because these programs work, not 
just because they help our farmers, not just because they reduce hunger 
among the world's most desperate children, not just because they get 
poor families to send and keep their children in school but because 
these programs, I believe, are central to our struggle to defeat 
terrorism.
  For fiscal year 2005, President Bush has proposed $75 million for 
McGovern-Dole, a modest increase from last year's devastating cutback 
to $50 million. I am glad to see the number going back up, but it is 
simply not enough. I would call upon my colleagues and the Bush 
administration to find a way to bring the funding levels for McGovern-
Dole back to $300 million.

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