[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7487]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 THE GEORGE McGOVERN-ROBERT DOLE INTERNATIONAL FOOD FOR EDUCATION AND 
                      CHILD NUTRITION ACT OF 2001

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Morella). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. EMERSON. Madam Speaker, I want to join with the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), my good friend, to talk about the global 
food for our education bill, and also to thank the gentleman for doing 
such a tremendous job in leading the charge forward on this particular 
legislation that I think is so very, very important for all of the 
children in the world who have no means to get a nutritional meal, and 
also because of the importance that it will mean for our farmers in 
America who are now suffering from the fourth year of low commodity 
prices, whose revenues will probably decrease in the neighborhood of 
about $4 billion this year.
  This legislation, quite frankly, is a win-win for the American 
farmer, and it is a win-win for children all over the world who 
desperately need food assistance and who need an education.
  Madam Speaker, I am particularly excited and motivated by the vision 
of former Senator and now Ambassador George McGovern and former Senator 
Bob Dole who really led the charge early in this fight against hunger, 
back many years ago when they were both serving in the Senate.
  It is also a very important issue for members of my family, because 
my late husband Bill was so very instrumental in bringing the issue of 
hunger, both domestically and internationally, into the Congress and 
worked so closely with his friend, the late Mickey Leland, as well as 
the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hall) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 
Wolf).
  I know that we all share a common desire to try to help as many 
people as we can all over the world, and I am particularly hopeful that 
we will be successful in passing this legislation as a stand-alone, but 
if not, hopefully it will be part of the next farm bill as it is 
written.
  I cannot think of anything that is more important for us to do as a 
country. I think Senator McGovern probably said it best when he said we 
had a moral responsibility as a country with our rich and valuable 
natural resources and our abundant and very safe food supply to help 
people who cannot help themselves.
  And I say to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), that 
the gentleman has done a magnificent job in getting our colleagues to 
be very excited about this, to be enthusiastic, and I am so very 
pleased also that the United States Senate is participating as well 
with their bill.
  Madam Speaker, let me say that from an agricultural standpoint, there 
are many, many benefits for the United States economy for international 
food assistance. We have done this for many, many years as a country. I 
am very hopeful that this will be a policy that we perpetuate, that we 
are able to get the rest of the world involved in, but, most 
importantly, this kind of foreign assistance.
  U.S. food aid helps alleviate poverty. It promotes economic growth to 
the recipient countries, and this is very, very important, because as 
incomes in developing countries rise, then we know that consumption 
patterns change, and we also know that food and other imports of U.S. 
goods and services increase.
  In fact, back in 1996, 9 of the top 10 agricultural importers of U.S. 
products were food aid recipients. While we are shipping food aid 
abroad, it is important for people to understand that most of the money 
stays in the United States.
  The domestic beneficiaries of U.S. food aid exports include our 
agricultural producers and suppliers, our processors, our millers, 
edible oil refiners, packaging, manufacturing, rail and motor 
transportation lines; I could go on and on and on. Most every State in 
the country does benefit from food aid exports, in spite of the fact 
that most people would not knowingly think that they were agricultural 
States.
  I think that we must do everything possible to help the world's 
hungry children. When my late husband Bill came back from a trip in the 
Sudan, when he came back from various trips to Ethiopia and other 
countries, it was a very, very sad experience. He would hold dying 
children in his arms, children who were 12 years old and 13 years old, 
who were about the size of a 3-year-old or 4-year-old, who did not 
weigh anything, who had no opportunity to go to school.
  Mr. Speaker, I just want to say in closing, then, that I hope that 
more people will help all of us help children all over the world, as 
well as the American farmer.

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