[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 126 (Monday, July 19, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H3655-H3657]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       DESERT LOCUST CONTROL ACT

  Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 1079) 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, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 1079

       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.
       (2) As of December 2020, the Food and Agriculture 
     Organization reported that there were 42 million people 
     experiencing acute food insecurity in East Africa, which 
     numbers are projected to increase if the desert locust 
     outbreak is not controlled.
       (3) 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.
       (4) 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.
       (5) 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 on efforts to control the desert locust 
     outbreak and mitigate its impacts and in exacerbating food 
     insecurity;
       (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

[[Page H3656]]

     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 Act 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.
       (g) 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 gentlewoman from 
Pennsylvania (Ms. Houlahan) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
Smith) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania.


                             General Leave

  Ms. HOULAHAN. 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. 1079, as amended.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Pennsylvania?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1079, the Desert Locust 
Control Act introduced by my colleague, Representative Chris Smith, 
ranking member of the Africa and Global Health and Global Human Rights 
Subcommittee.
  Starting in late 2019, swarms of locusts entered the Horn of Africa 
from the Gulf of Aden, multiplying and spreading throughout the region. 
Ever since it began, the locust outbreak has plagued the most 
vulnerable and threatened their ability to lead full lives, generate 
income, and to feed themselves and their families.
  Locusts are a highly mobile insect and have the capacity to consume 
vast amounts of crops in a very short period of time. Even a small 
swarm can consume food for up to 35,000 people each day. This has 
devastated large swaths of crops throughout East Africa, including 
Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, and stretching as far as Uganda and the 
Democratic Republic of Congo.
  Food security is already hanging by a thread in this region, and 
efforts to control the scale of destruction have been hindered by COVID 
restrictions, lack of reliable data, and the geographic reach of the 
outbreak across multiple countries. While some efforts have been 
successful in containing the outbreak from spreading further into West 
Africa, good rains this spring allowed for additional breeding, 
threatening future harvests in Somalia and Ethiopia. This measure would 
harmonize efforts across the United States Government to evaluate and 
respond to the locust outbreak, bringing in the support of the U.S. 
mission to the Food and Agricultural Organization, USAID, and others to 
establish a working group responding to the outbreak.
  We have already seen the ripple effects of COVID on poverty, food 
insecurity, health, education, and so much more. We must ensure that we 
don't let this outbreak continue to exacerbate and accelerate those 
already existing challenges.
  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.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Desert Locust 
Control Act, a bill I introduced along with my good friend and 
colleague, Representative Karen Bass of California, and we have worked 
on this issue together for quite a long time trying to mitigate its 
impact that it is having, particularly on Africa.
  I thank Representatives Meeks and McCaul for their work in ensuring 
that this legislation is on the floor today so that we can vote on it 
and hopefully see it enacted into law.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill will establish--and this is the core of it--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 famine, starvation, and mass scale food 
insecurity and potential political destabilization that goes along with 
all of that.
  According to USAID: ``The desert locust is one of the most 
destructive migratory pests in the entire world, rapidly consuming most 
vegetation in its path, including crops and pastureland critical to 
maintaining the food security and livelihoods of populations in East 
Africa. Locust swarms are highly mobile and carried on the wind; swarms 
can travel up to 100 miles per day, and even a relatively small, 0.4 
square mile-sized swarm can consume an amount of food sufficient for 
approximately 35,000 people in one day.''
  As recently as July 6, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, or 
FAO, has said that ``a desert locust upsurge is still underway in the 
Greater Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula,'' and that ``although 
substantial control operations are underway, the battle to control the 
desert locust is not yet over.''
  The World Bank notes that: ``A new generation of locusts emerges 
every eight weeks. Each generation, on average, sees a 20-fold increase 
in the population. The growing swarms spread to new areas, disrupting 
the food supply, upending livelihoods and requiring substantial 
resources to address.''
  Mr. Speaker, I believe there are three very important reasons to 
support this bill.
  The first is an obligation that we have to mitigate suffering 
wherever we are able to do so, and prevent starvation, famine, food 
insecurity, and stunting. Stunting increases when food is not available 
to young people especially during the first thousand days of life from 
conception to the second birthday.
  The second is our strategic U.S. national interest. Food insecurity 
causes instability, as we saw with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood 
in Egypt a decade ago. Here, the Horn of Africa is vitally important, 
and we see an area wracked by war and violence, be it the war in the 
Tigray region of Ethiopia and ethnic violence elsewhere in that 
strategically important country, or Al-Shabaab's efforts in neighboring 
Somalia to establish a radical terror regime. On top of this political 
chaos then is the food crisis caused by locusts, compounded by the 
ongoing COVID concerns.
  The third is that this legislation is both penny-wise and pound-wise. 
The bill calls for greater intergovernmental coordination so that we 
don't waste resources through redundant efforts but work in a highly 
coordinated fashion. Further, by addressing the food insecurity problem 
at the source, the locusts, we mitigate the need down the road to 
provide disaster and humanitarian assistance, which is more costly not 
only in terms of dollars, but most importantly in terms of human lives.
  I would further note that just last week Administrator Samantha Power 
addressed the Foreign Affairs Committee, and she addressed how spending 
a little money up front can save more down the road, while underscoring 
there is much work to be done.
  She said: ``We have treated more than 5 million acres of infested 
lands since 2020``--and the last administration and this administration 
is very focused, I would say parenthetically, on this--``preventing the 
loss of four million metric tons of crops. That's $1.2 billion worth of 
crop yields that were saved by virtue of this effort. I gather that 
things got better and now are turning downward again, so that is 
something that has my attention.''

[[Page H3657]]

  She went on to say: ``Whether it is providing surveillance, aircraft 
training, pesticides, and training about how to use the pesticides in 
order to avoid environmental damage and so forth--it is a very 
important enabling complement to the other work we do on food 
security.''

                              {time}  1600

  Finally, I would like to call attention to the yeoman's work that was 
done by our past ambassador to the United Nations Food Agencies, Kip 
Tom. This is an absolutely critical position that tends to be 
overlooked.
  He advised us, provided unbelievably important insights and 
information that helped us craft a response to push the previous 
administration to do more. And, hopefully, this will help coordinate 
everything.
  I would note, parenthetically, that President Biden has nominated 
Cindy McCain to fill that role at FAO, and I look forward to working 
with her and the rest of the administration on this important 
initiative.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Bass), the lead Democrat on this bill.
  Ms. BASS. Mr. Speaker, once again I thank the chairman and the 
ranking member for bringing H.R. 1079, the Desert Locust Control Act to 
the House floor today. As chair of the subcommittee, I am glad to 
colead this important bill with Ranking Member Smith.
  Ranking Member Smith has been the lead on this issue for several 
years. The current Desert Locust Control issue, which predominantly 
plagues East Africa, is the worst it has been in 70 years, and is 
causing serious famine and instability in the region.
  During a recent House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, USAID 
Administrator Samantha Power confirmed the need to address the millions 
of people facing food scarcity. This is compounded with the global 
resurgence of a new COVID-19 variant; although, in Africa, most people 
do not yet have access to the vaccine. So this is not just an issue of 
a pest; this is an issue that affects health systems, child education, 
local economies, and political stability.
  H.R. 1079 is a great first step to alleviate the locust problem in 
East Africa by aiming to set up an interagency working group to develop 
a strategy on combating the locust by meeting periodically and 
annually, and reporting progress to Congress. This bill would also 
allow the interagency working group to review the effectiveness of 
regional and multilateral efforts to control the desert locust outbreak 
and the coordination among relevant U.S. Government agencies, regional 
governments, and international organizations, including the World Food 
Program and the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Smith for his leadership on this 
bill, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support 
H.R. 1079.
  Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute to 
close.
  Mr. Speaker, first of all, I thank my good friend and colleague, 
Congresswoman Karen Bass, the chair of the Subcommittee on Africa, 
Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations. We 
have worked so close on so many issues. Sometimes she takes the lead; 
sometimes I take the lead, but we are always striving for that same 
outcome, and I thank her for her great support for this. It really is 
an honor to work with the gentlewoman.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume 
for the purpose of closing.
  Mr. Speaker, given the incredible damage locusts can inflict in such 
a short time, it is critical that our ability to evaluate and respond 
to these outbreaks is efficient across our government, including the 
U.S. mission to the Food and Agriculture Organization and to the USAID.
  That is exactly what this bill will do to help support regions that 
were already struggling with food security from being further impacted 
by locust swarms consuming their crops.
  I thank the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global 
Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, my 
colleague, Representative Smith, for introducing this important bill, 
and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Houlahan) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1079, as amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mrs. MILLER of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and 
nays.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 
8, the yeas and nays are ordered.
  Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this motion 
are postponed.

                          ____________________