[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 96 (Tuesday, July 13, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S8052]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Confirmation of Ken Hackett

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, several weeks ago the New York Times ran 
a story about what people all around the world do when they are 
starving. What they do, in effect, is to try to trick themselves into 
thinking that they do have food.
  According to the World Food Program, there are no more mukhet bushes 
near the refugee camps in eastern Chad, where more than 200,000 
Sudanese refugees have fled. Refugees have extracted what little 
nutritional value they can from those bushes by eating the toxic 
berries that grow on them.
  In Haitian slums, poor families eat dough made of butter, salt, 
water, and dirt.
  In Malawi, roadside stands sell roasted mice, and in Mozambique the 
poor eat grasshoppers when they must, calling them ``flying shrimp.''
  In Angola in the early 1990's, a man boiled leather from a family 
chair and served his family ``lamb soup.''
  Women in Eritrea regularly strap flat stones to their stomachs to 
lessen hunger pangs, and, in a cruel turn of the fable of stone soup we 
all learned growing up, mothers in many countries boil water with 
stones, telling children the food is almost ready and hoping they will 
fall asleep waiting.
  The New York Times goes on to argue--rightly--that the famines these 
people suffer through are not caused by a lack of food alone. They are 
caused by drought, government neglect, or war.
  The opposite, of course, is also true. Governments that make good 
policy choices can ease suffering, even in the most brutal situations. 
That fact underscores the wisdom of the Millennium Challenge Account. 
The MCA, as it is commonly called, says clearly that governments who 
prove they are ready for reform and openness can count on the support 
of the people of the United States.
  Today the Senate has confirmed the first two members of the board of 
directors who will oversee the MCA. We all know of Christie Todd 
Whitman and her experience. The other member whom we confirmed today is 
Ken Hackett, the president of Catholic Relief Services. I am proud to 
have nominated Ken for this important position.
  Ken is uniquely qualified for this job for one reason. He has 
dedicated his life to fighting for the poorest of the poor--the 
families who, without Ken and Catholic Relief Services, would be forced 
to eat leather, poison berries, or dirt.
  The Millennium Challenge Account is an innovative new tool in 
fostering global development and combating poverty. By demanding 
greater responsibility from recipient nations, we can foster reform and 
growth.
  At the same time, however, the vast majority of the world's poor will 
remain prisoners to their governments' bad policies and corruption. We 
cannot redouble our efforts under the Millennium Challenge Account, 
only to forget those who remain most in need, those whose only solace 
is a stone tied to their stomach. The MCA will be one tool--an 
innovative, new tool--in our fight against poverty. But it is not the 
only tool.
  That is why I nominated Ken Hackett for this important board. Ken 
Hackett will be a strong and clear voice for the poorest of the poor--a 
voice on this board and within the U.S. Government, much the way he has 
been at Catholic Relief Services for the last several decades.
  I thank my colleagues in supporting Ken's nomination for this 
important board. Voting for him is a vote for hope for the world's 
poor. It is a vote of confidence for the remarkable work of Catholic 
Relief Services. And it is a vote for retaining America's leadership to 
end suffering.

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