[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 34 (Monday, February 27, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1436-S1439]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Ending Global Hunger

  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I am here on the floor tonight to speak 
about our Nation's efforts to end global hunger. It is an undertaking 
that countless individuals, foundations, and government agencies have 
devoted a significant amount of time, resources, and effort attempting 
to solve.
  Those who have dedicated their lives to feeding the hungry deserve 
our deepest gratitude and respect. They made the decision to improve 
the lives of others less fortunate than themselves, and they often have 
done that at their own loss of comfort and their own well-being. There 
is no nobler a calling than trying to do something for someone else, 
especially when it costs you something as well.
  Regardless of our faith, our creed, or our religion, almost all of us 
are taught early in life that it is our duty to help those in need. 
Americans consistently have taken that moral responsibility to heart. 
As individuals, we help our neighbors through our churches and other 
local organizations. We help feed our hometowns. As a country, we lead 
the world in providing food aid to millions of people who are in need 
of that assistance.
  In 1983, at a signing of a World Food Day proclamation, President 
Reagan cited 450 million people in developing countries who were 
undernourished. Our global population has risen by 3 billion people 
since that time, and today there are nearly 800 million undernourished 
people in the world who do not have enough food to lead healthy, normal 
lives.
  While strides are being made in the fight against food insecurity, it 
is clear that our commitment cannot waiver, and ending hunger must 
remain a priority.
  At that same White House ceremony, President Reagan chided the Soviet 
Union for failing to provide humanitarian relief to those in need. 
President Reagan offered a direct challenge to the Kremlin to explain 
why the Soviet Union only provided weapons but not food assistance to 
the underdeveloped world.
  While the threats in the world today are different than those faced 
during the Cold War, American food assistance remains a powerful 
foreign policy tool. American food aid elevates our country's moral 
standing and leadership in the world, as realized by President Reagan, 
but our efforts to reduce food insecurity also serve our own national 
interests by promoting political, economic, and social stability in the 
world.
  Food-related hardships and hunger--either due to price increases or 
food shortages--act as a catalyst for protests and armed conflicts. We 
have witnessed regions of the world that are critical to America's 
strategic interests descend into chaos due to people not having access 
to affordable food.
  From 2007 to 2011, spikes in global food prices led to increased food 
insecurity and unrest in the world. In the Middle East and North 
Africa, food-related challenges were one of the major drivers of the 
mass uprising that we call the Arab Spring.
  In Syria, Islamic State rebels use the promise of food and basic 
necessities to recruit soldiers. Food shortages have led refugees to 
leave camps and return to an active war zone in search of food for 
themselves and their families.
  Closer to home, food prices contributed to rioting in Haiti in 2007 
and 2008. As food prices increased and economic conditions 
deteriorated, U.S. Coast Guard interceptions of people from Haiti 
attempting to immigrate to our country rose by 20 percent, straining 
Coast Guard resources.
  The National Intelligence Council warns that a continuation of the 
fundamental contributors to food insecurity--such as expanding 
populations, slowing of agricultural yields, and gaps in infrastructure 
and distribution systems--will result in increased food insecurity, 
hunger, and instability in the

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Middle East, Africa, and South Asia over the next 10 years without 
greater, greater intervention by the United States and others.
  In America, we take our food system for granted. Americans spend less 
than 10 percent of our disposable income on food. Even though less than 
2 percent of our country is directly engaged in farming, Americans have 
direct access to the safest, most affordable, and highest quality food 
in the world.
  I am proud of the wheat farmers and the ranchers in my home State of 
Kansas. Agriculture production is a noble calling. Feeding the world is 
important and a meaningful way to spend one's life, and Kansas families 
have done it for generations.
  Our country's food system at home is critical to our own security and 
well-being, and helping other countries achieve food security and 
stability serves our national interests as well.
  Utilizing U.S.-grown commodities in food aid programs also benefits 
American farmers and ranchers by creating export markets for our 
agricultural products, sometimes reducing an excess of supply.
  Almost 10 percent of exports of the hard red winter wheat grown in 
Kansas in 2016 was utilized by international food programs, 
representing a significant market share for wheat grown in our State. 
Today's low commodity prices only serve to highlight the need for ag 
export markets for producers.
  A few months ago, I called on the U.S. Agency for International 
Development and the Department of Agriculture to significantly increase 
the amount of wheat in our global food aid programs.
  Our country's abundance of food imparts a moral duty to provide 
humanitarian relief to those in need. We have witnessed great 
unsettlement and mass migration in the world due to political 
instability and civil wars. The vast majority of people affected, 
including displaced refugees whose lives were uprooted and whose 
ability to feed themselves was taken away, are suffering through no 
fault of their own.
  In other parts of the world, people are born into such poverty that 
simply finding sufficient food is a daily challenge. Reading recent 
articles, the question has often been: Where am I going to find food to 
feed my family?
  People in Cambodia indicate they have no idea. It is a day-to-day, 
moment-to-moment, meal-to-meal experience. Even if that food is 
available, it is often not accessible to people without the means to 
pay for it.
  Many of these people--weary, desolate, and hungry--survive only 
because of the generosity of the American people. Those hungry and less 
fortunate depend on a nation with moral strength and clarity to give 
them a helping hand.
  There is still more work to be done in the fight against hunger, and 
America ought to continue to rise to the challenge of providing food 
and helping people feed themselves throughout the world.
  It is a turbulent world stricken with conflict, and sometimes the 
hunger and problem seem so great that it would be easy just to walk 
away and say it is too big of a problem to solve. But certainly we have 
the ability.
  We have the means to feed one person. If we can feed one, why not 
two? And if we can all feed two, why not three?
  We can't simply look at this challenge as being too big to overcome 
and that the world will always have hungry people and then just say: We 
have no responsibility to respond.
  Food aid provided by the U.S. reduces despair and increases 
stability. My point is that it has a moral component. It is the right 
thing to do, but it is also beneficial to our own Nation, providing 
stability around the globe and increasing our own national security.
  The importance of these issues motivated me when I was in the House 
to chair the House Hunger Caucus, and now I cochair the Senate Hunger 
Caucus. I can't remember what year it was, but I had a midlife crisis. 
I have probably had several since then. But my thoughts were at that 
point in time, back in my House days, that at least then I thought of 
myself as a pretty good Member of Congress. I answered the mail. I met 
with constituents. I visited my State on a weekend-by-weekend basis. I 
had input. I did the things that a good Member of Congress is supposed 
to do. I represented my constituents well.
  But we all can do something more than just be a good Member of 
Congress, and that was my conclusion. If there is an issue that we want 
to champion, if there is an issue on which we want to make a 
difference, if there is a moral cause we want to rise to the occasion 
to support, hunger, particularly for Congressman--now a Senator--from 
Kansas, ought to be a place I put my stake in the ground and go to 
work.
  I suppose I have taken a few months off of this issue--and maybe I am 
having another midlife crisis--but it is time for me to reengage and to 
engage effectively as best I can to see that we live up to a moral 
commitment that also benefits our own country.
  So I now cochair the Senate Hunger Caucus. I have since I came to the 
Senate. I serve with a number of my colleagues, including the one who 
is on the floor tonight, the Senator from Illinois. I ask my colleagues 
to join us in the effort to meet the needs of a hungry world, to take 
the step to see that one more person is fed, one more family has less 
insecurity, one more mother or father no longer worries about whether 
their children are going to go to bed hungry.
  Former Kansas Senator Bob Dole has set many standards in the way that 
he led his life, which we should all aspire to meet, not the least of 
which is his unwavering commitment to ending hunger. Those of us in 
this Senate today ought to seek to carry on Senator Dole's legacy. I 
would encourage my colleagues to join me and others as we work to put 
the Senate Hunger Caucus together, to enhance its ability to address 
the issues that we face in the real world to fight hunger.
  I am committed to reengaging these efforts. Along with the other 
caucus cochairs--Senators Boozman, Casey, Durbin, and Brown--I would 
extend an invitation to each of my colleagues to join that caucus so 
that we can take the small step of fighting hunger by becoming more 
knowledgeable, more aware and engaging in the moral and strategic 
battle to end hunger around the globe.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, let me start by commending my colleague 
from Kansas. It is an honor to join him in this Senate Hunger Caucus 
effort. He does it in the tradition of Senator Bob Dole of Kansas. 
Along with George McGovern, they were two of the most unlikely 
political allies. They really dedicated a large part of their public 
lives to fighting hunger.
  I am happy to join him in the memory of Paul Simon, who did the same 
for the State of Illinois. So I am looking forward to joining the 
Senator in this effort. I hope the Senator doesn't have to suffer 
another midlife crisis in the future. Let's continue this in a good 
bipartisan spirit.
  I thank the Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. President, I have come to the floor repeatedly in recent months 
to raise concerns about the Russian cyber act of war against our 
Nation, about Russia's aggression elsewhere against the West, this 
President's disturbing alliance with Russia, and the majority party's 
incredible silence on the Senate floor on these matters.
  Well, I just spent several days visiting our allies in Eastern 
Europe--notably Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine--and return even more 
concerned.
  You see, regardless of the partisan leanings of who is in government 
in these nations, the concern is the same.
  Is the United States, history's champion of democracy and collective 
security in Europe, backing away from these values and commitments just 
as Russia is more aggressively challenging them?
  Is the American President really using phrases like ``enemy of the 
people'' to describe a free press--a term used by Soviet dictator 
Joseph Stalin, that was so ominous that Soviet Premier Nikita 
Khrushchev later demanded the Communist Party halt its use because it 
``eliminated the possibility of any kind of ideological fight''?
  Are the Trump administration's bizarre blinders to Vladimir Putin's 
aggression and true nature--and the silence of too many of my 
Republican colleagues on this danger--a harbinger of some kind of 
Western retreat to the Russians?

[[Page S1438]]

  Well, I met with many of our dedicated diplomatic and military 
personnel in the region who, as part of ramped up reassurance efforts 
by the previous administration, are working to keep Putin in check.
  These included more than 100 U.S. military personnel working with 
their Lithuanian counterparts about an hour outside of the capital in 
Rukla. These U.S. troops and their colleagues rotate out of Poland and 
throughout the Baltics to augment their NATO partners in deterring a 
Russian attack.
  Mr. President, the concerns about Russian aggression are legitimate 
and warrant serious attention. Let's take a look at just recent Russian 
actions in Europe. One day after President Trump spoke to Putin on the 
phone in late January, Russian-backed separatists increased their 
fighting in Ukraine--1eading to the highest death toll in months.
  After Vice President Pence tried to reassure allies at the Munich 
Security Conference the other week, Russia agreed to start accepting 
identification documents issued by the separatists in eastern Ukraine--
one step closer to annexing the illegally seized territory.
  Putin is strong-arming Belarussian President Lukashenko to allow 
Russian troops to remain based in Belarus following an upcoming 
significant military exercise. Russia is putting more and more 
sophisticated weapons into Kaliningrad, which when combined with 
permanent troops in Belarus, will significantly increase security 
threats to the region. Russia just announced a referendum to rename 
land it illegally seized by force in Georgia.
  Putin is trying to stir unrest in Kosovo where NATO is trying to 
maintain stability after the horrific violence of the Balkan war. He 
attempted a coup in Montenegro. And Russia continues its aggressive 
disinformation campaign and cyber attacks throughout Europe, trying to 
manipulate elections and sow instability and lack of trust in 
democratic institutions. One Polish expert summed all this up wisely, 
saying ``if the United States does not respond to the Russian attack on 
its election, Putin will feel he has a free hand to keep taking such 
destabilizing actions in the West.'' I worry that is what is already 
happening.
  So, what is the response to these actions by this White House and the 
majority party--the party of Ronald Reagan who understood the Russians 
so well?
  So far, with the exception of a few important voices, largely 
silence.
  In fact, as I have mentioned here before, since October when the 
first intelligence reports came out about the Russian attack on our 
election, not a single Republican has come to the floor to discuss this 
act of cyber war by a former KGB official on our country.
  And our President, who has attacked hundreds by Twitter for even the 
most benign perceived slight, has refused to say anything negative 
about Putin.
  Obviously, we need to get to the bottom of the Russia attacks on our 
election and if anyone in the Trump campaign had inappropriate contact 
with the Russians. An independent commission led by respected 
individuals such as Sandra Day O'Connor or Colin Powell could lead such 
an effort. And we need to see the President's tax returns to clarify 
what his son said in 2008 regarding Trump's businesses seeing ``a lot 
of money pouring in from Russia.''
  We need to pass the bipartisan Russian sanctions bills pending in the 
Senate Foreign Relations Committee--one that tightens sanctions on 
Russia for its actions here and abroad and one that requires 
congressional approval before any sanctions on Russia are lifted.
  And we need to make sure we include continued support to Ukraine and 
for the European Reassurance Initiative in our next appropriations 
bills.
  Mr. President, I remember as a young Congressman trying to get into 
Lithuania more than 25 years ago when it courageously tried to hold an 
election breaking free from the Soviet Union.
  Those brave Lithuanians had little but their idealism and a few 
rifles to protect themselves from the Soviet tanks.
  But in the end they prevailed, and one by one, Eastern European 
nations freed themselves from Communist tyranny, a struggle Ukraine is 
still fighting against Russia.
  Today one can still visit the KGB museum in the capital of 
Lithuania--a hall of horrors that nobody should ever forget. One 
Lithuanian member of parliament I met, who remembers life not only 
under the Soviets but also under the Nazis, recalled how his mother had 
survived 4 years in a Nazi concentration camp.
  He emotionally said that he had always seen the United States as the 
champion of freedom, democracy, and a Western global order. I could 
tell he was deeply worried about any backsliding on that important role 
and any possibility of returning to the darker days in Europe.
  I don't know exactly what Steve Bannon is whispering in Trump's ear 
regarding his dark world view and indifference to the transatlantic 
Western alliance, but this post World War II partnership has served 
American and global interests. The relationship has brought stability 
to Europe after decades of horrific war. It has brought democracy and 
common markets and served as a check against the Soviet Union and now 
Russia.
  I am glad Vice President Pence made some references to this at the 
Munich Security Conference, but those words will not be enough on their 
own. Quite simply, any sympathies in the White House with Russian 
efforts to undermine the transatlantic relationship are outrageous and 
dangerous, and I will oppose them here in the Senate.
  To reiterate, Mr. President, during the Presidents Day break, I took 
a trip to three capitals, which I consider to be timely and important 
visits: Warsaw, Poland; Vilnius, Lithuania, and Kiev, Ukraine. I have 
been to these cities many times, and I have a particular attachment to 
them. My mother was born in Lithuania, and so returning there, as I 
have for over 35 years, I have seen a sweep of history as that small 
Baltic State has moved from a republic of the Soviet Union to a free 
and independent nation today. I am so proud of the courage of 
Lithuanians that had brought them to this moment.
  Going to Warsaw, Poland, is natural for a Senator from Chicago. We 
have more Polish Americans in that city and in our State than anyplace 
outside of Poland. We are very proud of our Polish heritage. They are 
wonderful people. They are not only hard-working, good Polish 
Americans, but they are also always thinking about their own homeland, 
which was under the control of the Warsaw Pact, a Soviet-inspired 
alliance, for decades, at the expense of their freedom.
  I also visited Kiev, Ukraine. That capital has become well known to 
many of us since the invasion by Vladimir Putin, which is the point I 
would like to make.
  The thing that ties these three countries together, despite their 
differences in history, is the fact that if you ask each of these 
countries today to identify the major external threat to their 
existence and to their freedom, they would identify Vladimir Putin of 
Russia. I found that in Warsaw, again in Vilnius, the capital of 
Lithuania, as well as in Ukraine.
  It was interesting--and Senator Jeanne Shaheen joined me on my trip 
to visit Poland--that as we met with the leaders of that nation, we 
heard repeatedly their concerns about Russian aggression. It was 
something that was critically important to them. They were heartened by 
statements made by Vice President Pence at the Munich conference about 
the future of the NATO alliance, but let's put it in context. The 
reason the Vice President had to travel from Washington to Munich, 
Germany, to say to the Western world that was gathered there that the 
NATO alliance was still strong was because the current President of the 
United States, Donald Trump, had tweeted that NATO was obsolete, and 
one of his followers, Steve Bannon of Breitbart fame, had questioned 
whether we should be engaging in these kinds of alliances.
  Well, I think those alliances are critical. The NATO alliance has 
been one of the most successful in history. So when Vice President 
Pence went to Munich to assure our NATO allies that we were still on 
their side, it was an important message.
  I did find one other thing telling and memorable about that trip to 
Warsaw. One of the Polish leaders said to me: We have read that the 
Russians invaded your election. We are used to this. He called it the 
hybrid war. He

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said: It isn't just aggression by Russians with military aggression, 
which is scary enough, but it is a war of cyber aggression and a war of 
propaganda, and clearly Vladimir Putin believed in your last 
Presidential election that he could use some of those same tactics that 
he uses against Poland and the Baltics in the United States. This 
leader in Poland then challenged me: What are you going to do about 
that? Now that you know that Vladimir Putin has invaded your election, 
now that your intelligence agencies tell you that, will you do 
something? Will you take this seriously? Will you investigate it? He 
said: Our worry in Poland is, if you will not respond to Vladimir 
Putin's invasion into your cyber space, what will you do if he invades 
Poland? Will you stand by us as you promised in article 5? If you don't 
take him seriously when he invades your sovereignty, will you take it 
seriously when he invades ours?
  It is an important question and a right question. I hope we take a 
lesson from it--not to take Vladimir Putin for granted, not to view him 
as a superhero or great leader but to understand that people around the 
world are watching to see how we react to this Russian invasion of our 
election.
  In Lithuania, they face propaganda on a daily basis. German troops 
under the flag of NATO are now in Lithuania making it clear that we are 
committed to the future and security of that nation. What did Vladimir 
Putin and the Russian propagandists do as soon as these German troops 
moved into Lithuania? They created an absolutely false rumor that a 
German soldier had raped a Lithuanian woman. It wasn't true, but it was 
the kind of false information that they have spread in the hopes of 
undermining the confidence of Lithuania and the NATO alliance.
  I met with the President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite, and she is 
a very decisive leader. I thought of Margaret Thatcher's style when I 
met with President Grybauskaite. She is an ``Iron Lady'' in her own 
right to protect Lithuania and other Baltic States from Russian 
aggression.
  The last trip we made was to Ukraine, and Congressman Mike Quigley of 
Chicago joined me in that visit. In that visit, we had a chance to meet 
late at night, 9 o'clock at night with the President of Ukraine, Petro 
Poroshenko, who was kindly waiting for us to get off the plane and come 
join him at his Presidential offices. They are struggling even to this 
day. As President Trump is in conversation with President Putin about 
future relationships, sadly, at that very same moment, aggression by 
the Russians in Ukraine was growing. Over 10,000 people have been 
injured or died now because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There 
is speculation, and I hope it is just that, that some backroom 
negotiations are underway to recognize this Russian aggression in 
Ukraine. I sincerely hope that never happens. We should never condone 
what Vladimir Putin has done to that country of Ukraine. They are 
struggling now to get back on their feet. They are making reforms that 
are unpopular but necessary. They are strengthening their economy and 
at the same time they are fighting a war.
  I left there with two resolves. One was to make sure we provide 
military equipment necessary for Ukraine to be successful to ward off 
this Russian aggression; No. 2, to continue to work with them in terms 
of building their economy and reform; and, No. 3, that we have a 
visible physical presence with those NATO forces in the Baltic States 
and in Poland. We have a great alliance in these countries. In Poland 
the Illinois National Guard has been a longtime ally of the Polish 
forces, and we are very proud of that relationship.
  When it came to Lithuania, we were able to see a group from Fort 
Carson in Colorado. It was a tank command. I never saw prouder soldiers 
in my life--American soldiers anxious to show this Senator the Abrams 
M1 and the fighting vehicles they were using preparing for the 
possibility of defending Lithuania and the Baltics. It was an inspiring 
moment.
  I made my statement part of the record, and I know the Senator from 
South Dakota is seeking the floor, but I left there committed to the 
NATO alliance and committed to the effort to stop the aggression of 
Vladimir Putin, committed as well to come home to the United States and 
say to my colleagues in the Senate and House that we have to take it 
seriously when Vladimir Putin tries to change the outcome of an 
American election. It is a sad day in American history. I believe 
November 8, 2016, is a day that will live in cyber infamy for what 
Vladimir Putin tried to do in the United States. For us to ignore it, 
to sweep it under the table, to hide it behind some committee door, 
when no one knows what is going on inside, is not the appropriate 
answer. We need an independent, transparent investigation of what the 
Russians did, a special prosecutor at the executive level, and an 
independent commission like the 9/11 Commission, headed by notable 
Americans like GEN Colin Powell or Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who 
will bring all the facts to light so we know once and for all the truth 
of what happened and make certain it never happens again.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Ernst). The Senator from South Dakota.