[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 70 (Thursday, April 28, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H4581-H4582]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REAUTHORIZING THE FARM BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Mann) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MANN. Madam Speaker, in preparation for reauthorizing the farm 
bill in 2023, I rise today to deliver the eighth installment of my farm 
bill impact series, where I am highlighting various aspects of the farm 
bill that deserve Congress' awareness and support.
  The food aid programs within the farm bill not only support the 
nutrition of millions of Americans struggling with hunger, but they 
also help to stop global conflicts before they start.
  Kansas is the Wheat State, and wheat is the number one commodity used 
in U.S. donations for international food aid. If you combine all the 
aid destinations, they amount to a top 10 market for U.S. wheat.
  The last two farm bills have granted USAID flexibility in 
implementing aid programs, which has resulted in the U.S. purchasing 
from other countries more than half of the total food we give out.
  That is a noble thing to use our resources to help hungry people 
overseas, but our government should prioritize the commodities of 
American farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers as we carry out 
this good work abroad.

  International food assistance programs work alongside legislation to 
help stabilize countries ravaged by famine and war, reduce terrorism, 
and give people an alternative from fleeing their homeland just to find 
food.
  For instance, I introduced a resolution condemning and prohibiting 
the

[[Page H4582]]

use of hunger as a weapon, which some bad actors do in countries 
suffering from war and natural disasters. Food aid programs work 
alongside the legislation to avert food shortages in such countries, 
making it more difficult for anyone to use hunger as a weapon in the 
first place.
  The farm bill has some excellent programs for international food 
assistance that I believe should be reauthorized.
  The Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust is a special authority in the 
2018 farm bill that allows USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance 
to respond to unanticipated food crises abroad. I just sent a 
bipartisan letter earlier this month asking the President to release 
BEHT.
  Food for Peace is another great program through which our country 
responds to humanitarian crises and food security problems globally. 
The idea for this program actually came from a meeting of the Southwest 
Kansas Farm Bureau and first appeared in 1954 when President Eisenhower 
signed the Agriculture Trade Development and Assistance Act into law.
  Today, USDA and USAID partner with organizations to implement Food 
for Peace and other food aid programs, stopping global conflicts from 
escalating into humanitarian disasters.
  The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child 
Nutrition Program, named in part for Kansas' own Bob Dole, helps 
support education, child development, and food security in low-income, 
food-deficit countries around the globe. The program provides for the 
donation of U.S. agricultural commodities, as well as financial and 
technical assistance to support school meal programs as well as 
maternal and child nutrition programs.
  I supported this program in fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2023 
appropriations because it has a proven track record for reducing 
hunger, improving literacy in children, and helping provide nutrition 
for pregnant and nursing mothers, infants, and preschoolers.
  Earlier this month, Nicole Berg, president of the National 
Association of Wheat Growers, spoke to the House Agriculture 
Committee's Livestock and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee. In her 
testimony, she gave us her eyewitness account, from her 2019 trip to 
Kenya and Tanzania, of how international food assistance helps those 
people in most need.
  She visited refugee camps where the World Food Programme is feeding 
98 percent of the 200,000 people there who hail from nine countries. 
She said that witnessing U.S. food shipments saving lives firsthand 
changed her life.
  I want to make sure that, going forward, we use U.S. commodities 
while we carry out this good work abroad. If America is going to 
conduct international food assistance in an effective way, the Biden 
administration is going to have to get a grip on the agricultural 
impact of its trade and foreign policies.
  Sadly, on an international scale, the Biden administration is turning 
a blind eye to agriculture. Russia's assault on Ukraine is one of the 
most horrifying humanitarian crises in recent memory, and it has grave 
food security implications for Europe.
  Ukraine is known as the breadbasket of Europe. It is the third-
largest grain exporter in the world. You would think this 
administration would want a point person to develop a strategy for 
addressing this looming problem, but President Biden still hasn't 
appointed either a USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign 
Agricultural Affairs or a Chief Agricultural Negotiator for USTR.
  The Biden administration has also sat back and done nothing to hold 
China accountable for stiffing American farmers out of $16 billion in 
the Phase One trade deal, and the President left agriculture out of his 
Indo-Pacific strategy entirely.
  I, along with American farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers, 
am appalled at this shortsightedness. You cannot take food for granted, 
which is why the Biden administration needs to wake up and why Congress 
must think carefully about the reauthorization of the international 
food assistance programs in the farm bill.
  I will be back on the floor soon to deliver another installment of my 
farm bill impact series. America's farmers, ranchers, and agricultural 
producers are American heroes who are bearing the responsibility of 
feeding hungry people around the world.
  Their efforts deserve the full support of Congress because the food 
security and, therefore, the national security of America hangs in the 
balance.

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