[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 196 (Wednesday, November 18, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H5895-H5897]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       DESERT LOCUST CONTROL ACT

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill 
(H.R. 7276) to establish an interagency working group to develop a 
comprehensive, strategic plan to eradicate locust outbreaks in the East 
Africa region and address future outbreaks in order to avert mass scale 
food insecurity and potential political destabilization, and for other 
purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 7276

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Desert Locust Control Act''.

     SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

       It is the policy of the United States to prioritize efforts 
     to control the ongoing desert locust outbreak in East Africa 
     and other affected regions, mitigate the impacts on food 
     security, economic productivity, and political stability, 
     improve interagency coordination to prevent future outbreaks, 
     and promote resilience in affected countries.

     SEC. 3. FINDINGS.

       Congress finds the following:
       (1) The United States Agency for International Development 
     reports that countries in East Africa are currently suffering 
     the worst desert locust outbreak in decades, which will 
     devour crops and pasture and destroy local livelihoods across 
     the region.

[[Page H5896]]

       (2) As of June 2020, there were more than 26 million people 
     experiencing acute food insecurity in Ethiopia, Kenya, 
     Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan, and Djibouti, 
     and these numbers are projected to increase if the desert 
     locust outbreak is not controlled.
       (3) As the desert locust outbreak continues, there may be 
     insufficient resources to continue to conduct aerial spraying 
     and without such resources the current outbreak could develop 
     into a plague by the end of 2020.
       (4) The desert locust outbreak in East Africa, particularly 
     in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia, is negatively impacting food 
     security, local livelihoods and economic productivity, and 
     may threaten political stability in the region.
       (5) Proactive investments now to control the desert locust 
     outbreak could reduce the need for a much larger United 
     States humanitarian response effort later, as well as support 
     economic and political stability and build resilience in 
     affected countries.
       (6) In order to optimize the United States response to the 
     desert locust outbreak, an interagency working group should 
     be established to develop and implement a comprehensive, 
     strategic plan to control the desert locust outbreak in East 
     Africa and other affected regions, mitigate impacts on food 
     security, economic productivity, and political stability and 
     prevent future outbreaks.

     SEC. 4. INTERAGENCY WORKING GROUP.

       (a) Establishment.--The President shall establish an 
     interagency working group to coordinate the United States 
     response to the ongoing desert locust outbreak in East Africa 
     and other affected regions, including the development of a 
     comprehensive, strategic plan to control the outbreak, 
     mitigate the impacts on food security, economic productivity, 
     and political stability, and prevent future outbreaks.
       (b) Membership.--
       (1) In general.--The interagency working group shall be 
     composed of the following:
       (A) Two representatives from the United States Agency for 
     International Development.
       (B) One representative from each of the following:
       (i) The United States Mission to the United Nations 
     Agencies for Food and Agriculture.
       (ii) The National Security Council.
       (iii) The Department of State.
       (iv) The Department of Defense.
       (v) The Department of Agriculture.
       (vi) Any other relevant Federal department or agency.
       (2) Chair.--The President shall designate one of the 
     representatives from the United States Agency for 
     International Development described in paragraph (1)(A) to 
     serve as chair of the interagency working group.
       (c) Duties.--The interagency working group shall--
       (1) assess the scope of the desert locust outbreak in East 
     Africa and other affected regions, including its impact on 
     food security, economic productivity, and political stability 
     in affected countries;
       (2) assess the impacts of restrictions relating to the 
     coronavirus disease 2019 (commonly referred to as ``COVID-
     19'') pandemic;
       (3) monitor the effectiveness of ongoing assistance efforts 
     to control the desert locust outbreak and mitigate its 
     impacts and identify gaps and opportunities for additional 
     support to such programs;
       (4) review the effectiveness of regional and multilateral 
     efforts to control the desert locust outbreak and the 
     coordination among relevant United States Government 
     agencies, regional governments, and international 
     organizations, including the World Food Programme and the 
     United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization; and
       (5) not later than 90 days after the establishment of the 
     interagency working group under subsection (a), develop and 
     submit to the President and the appropriate congressional 
     committees a comprehensive, strategic plan to control the 
     desert locust outbreak, including a description of efforts 
     to--
       (A) improve coordination among relevant United States 
     Government agencies, regional governments, and international 
     organizations, including the World Food Programme and the 
     United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization;
       (B) ensure delivery of necessary assets control the desert 
     locust outbreak and humanitarian and development assistance 
     to address and mitigate impacts to food security, economic 
     productivity, and political stability; and
       (C) to the extent practicable, prevent and mitigate future 
     desert locust and other, similar destructive insect outbreaks 
     (such as Fall Armyworm) in Africa and other parts of the 
     world, which require a humanitarian response.
       (d) Interagency Working Group Support.--The interagency 
     working group shall continue to meet not less than semi-
     annually to facilitate implementation of the comprehensive, 
     strategic plan required by subsection (c)(5).
       (e) Sunset.--This section shall terminate on the date that 
     is 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, or at 
     such time as there is no longer an upsurge in the desert 
     locust outbreak in East Africa, whichever occurs earlier.
       (f) Appropriate Congressional Committees Defined.--In this 
     section, the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' 
     means--
       (1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on 
     Appropriations of the House of Representatives; and
       (2) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on 
     Appropriations of the Senate.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Engel) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York.


                             General Leave

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 
5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on H.R. 7276.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Desert Locust Control Act, and 
I thank Mr. Smith for bringing forward this very important legislation.
  In late 2019, swarms of locusts entered the Horn of Africa from the 
Gulf of Aden, multiplying and spreading throughout the region.
  Locusts are highly mobile and can consume vast amounts of vegetation 
in a short period of time. Even a small swarm can consume crops that 
would feed up to 35,000 people in day. They have devastated large 
swaths of farmland through east Africa, including Kenya, Somalia, and 
Ethiopia and across the Red Sea in Yemen.
  Food security is already hanging by a thread in these regions, and 
efforts to control the locusts have been hindered by the COVID-19 
pandemic, lack of reliable data, and the geographical reach of the 
swarm across multiple countries.
  The Desert Locust Control Act would step up coordination of efforts 
to evaluate and respond to the locust outbreak across the United States 
Government, bringing in the support of the U.S. mission to the Food and 
Agricultural Organization, USAID, and others to effectively respond to 
the outbreak.
  We have already seen the ripple effects of the coronavirus pandemic 
on poverty, food insecurity, health, and education. We must ensure that 
we do not let this locust plague compound those challenges.
  I, again, thank Mr. Smith for his leadership in authoring this 
measure.
  I urge Members on both sides of the aisle to support this bill, and, 
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  I will begin by thanking our distinguished chairman, Eliot Engel, for 
his extraordinary leadership as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs 
Committee for all these years. He is a good friend. We have worked on 
so many issues together. I thank him again for his leadership. It has 
been extraordinary. Your bipartisanship has been an example to us all, 
so I thank you for that, Eliot, and I really mean that deeply.
  I also thank my good friend and colleague from Texas, the ranking 
member,   Michael McCaul, for his support of this legislation and other 
important initiatives.
  Also, Eliot, thank you again.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 7276, the Desert Locust 
Control Act, which I introduced along with my good friend and 
colleague, Karen Bass. She is chairwoman, as you know, of the Africa, 
Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations 
Subcommittee. I am the ranking member. In previous times I was the 
chairman, and she was my ranking member, and we have worked very 
closely together on all issues dealing with the health and well-being 
of people around the world through the global health portion of our 
portfolio, but also, with a very particular emphasis on Africa.
  This bipartisan bill would create an interagency task force that 
would address the crisis of increasingly biblical proportions caused by 
swarms of desert locusts, which have been compounded by the COVID 
crisis, which our country and so many other nations are dealing with.
  Indeed, as serious as COVID has been, and it has been serious, as we 
all know, the unfortunate fact is that there are many other threats to 
the welfare and

[[Page H5897]]

well-being of so many people in the developing world, including Sub-
Saharan Africa, where the likelihood of food insecurity looms larger 
thanks to the pandemic.
  Just how bad is it?
  Swarms of hundreds of millions of locusts darken the sky, descend 
upon an area, stripping it entirely of its vegetation. Crops are just 
decimated in a matter of minutes and hours.
  Unfortunately, due in part to this bad timing with a pandemic, we are 
witnessing the real possibility of famine in many countries of east 
Africa, where over 27 million people are now estimated to be suffering 
from acute food insecurity, which is defined as the sudden lack of food 
or the ability to produce or access minimum requirements of food.
  I should note that in the case of one of the nations most impacted, 
Ethiopia, the political situation has simultaneously deteriorated, so 
that the country is now on the brink of civil war with the added crisis 
of refugees fleeing conflicted areas added to the mix of cascading 
calamities and compounding crises.
  Indeed, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the FAO, estimates 
that this infestation of locusts will persist until at least March 2021 
in both Ethiopia and Somalia.
  Our bill would create an interagency working group comprised of 
representatives of the USAID, State, the NSC, the Department of 
Defense, and the Department of Agriculture to formulate a strategic 
plan to address this and future locust outbreaks, as well as other 
similarly destructive pests, such as fall armyworm, which wreaks 
tremendous havoc on crops annually.
  The working group would also include a representative from our 
mission to the United Nations food agencies based in Rome, where our 
current ambassador, Kip Tom, is doing a stellar job interacting with 
both the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture 
Organization, as well as locust-impacted countries.
  Ambassador Kip Tom has briefed me and others repeatedly. We have 
talked about best practices on the phone in Skype phone calls, and 
again, I want to single him out for the tremendous job that he has done 
in trying to mitigate this crisis.
  The World Food Programme has also been a tremendous help, as it has 
been in so many other places around the world, under the extraordinary 
leadership of David Beasley.

                              {time}  1345

  Indeed, the international community has recognized the yeoman's work 
by awarding the World Food Program the Nobel Peace Prize.
  Ambassador Tom has been pushing the FAO in particular to proactively 
address the problem and adopt the better use of technology. For 
example, use of apps on smartphones in Kenya advocated by the 
Ambassador has led to roughly 80 percent of the data collected on the 
location of desert locusts, thereby allowing for the targeted 
mobilization of aerial assets for locust eradication and control.
  It is innovation such as this, and the adoption of best practices, 
which our interagency group will focus on identifying and implementing. 
Indeed, we also think that the working group will help ensure that our 
taxpayer dollars are spent in the most effective way possible. The 
United States Government has committed over $24 million to the USAID, 
and that has made a difference as well.
  While the focus of our bill is on East Africa, other countries like 
Yemen, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are threatened by these 
spreading swarms as well. Indeed, Yemen has become a breeding ground 
for locusts crossing over into the Horn of Africa, compounding the 
problem caused by indigenous swarms in the countries of the Horn.
  Again, Mr. Speaker, I urge strong support for the bill. And again, I 
thank our distinguished chairman for his leadership on this bill and so 
many others.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, once again, I thank Mr. Smith for his work on this 
legislation. Mr. Smith, through the years, has done great work on so 
many issues. I think he is the only one on the Foreign Affairs 
Committee that has actually been there longer than I have. We have 
collaborated on a good many projects, bipartisan projects, through the 
years. I thank Mr. Smith for being such a good member of the committee.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support this legislation. It is very 
important. It is very important for our country. It is very important 
for the world. I urge all my colleagues to support it, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 7276, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  The title of the bill was amended so as to read: ``A bill to 
establish an interagency working group to develop a comprehensive, 
strategic plan to control locust outbreaks in the East Africa region 
and address future outbreaks in order to avert mass scale food 
insecurity and potential political destabilization, and for other 
purposes.''.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________