The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE U.S. MUST DO MORE TO FIGHT CHILD HUNGER” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H101-H102 on Jan. 27, 2004.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE U.S. MUST DO MORE TO FIGHT CHILD HUNGER
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on December 11, 102 Members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter to President Bush asking him to restore the original funding level for the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education Program when he submits his fiscal year 2005 budget next week.
The McGovern-Dole program began as a $300 million pilot program in 2001. It provided at least one nutritious meal each day to nearly 7 million children in 38 countries. The catch? These children had to attend school in order to get the meals.
Providing food to malnourished children in schools is one of the most effective strategies to fight hunger and poverty. Where programs are offered, enrollment and attendance rates increase significantly, particularly for girls. Instead of working or searching for food to combat hunger, children have the chance to go to school. Providing food at school is a simple but effective means to improve literacy and help poor children break out of poverty.
The McGovern-Dole program helps us to achieve many of our foreign policy goals and communicates America's compassion to those around the world. And at the end of the day, it will be programs like McGovern-
Dole that will ultimately triumph over poverty and terror.
One year ago, in February 2003, the U.S. Department of Agriculture evaluated this program, and the conclusions were overwhelmingly positive. In addition to significantly reducing the incidence of hunger among school-age children, the program was also found to promote educational opportunity, especially for girls, among some of the poorest populations in the world.
Sadly, in fiscal year 2003, McGovern-Dole received only $100 million in funding, reducing the number of children served to scarcely more than 2 million worldwide in just 28 countries. In fiscal year 2004, President Bush only asked for $50 million, and acting under severe budget constraints, this is what Congress provided. In brief, for fiscal year 2004, the United States will literally be taking food out of the mouths of yet another 1 million hungry children and forcing many of their families to remove them from school.
The senior Senator from Kansas and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts, has stated on a number of occasions his belief that the McGovern-Dole program serves our national security interests by attacking the breeding grounds of terrorism, hunger, poverty, ignorance, and despair, while at the same time ensuring that children are fed in settings where they receive a quality education rather than hate-filled indoctrination. But rather than expanding this program to reach even more school-age children, to help stabilize communities devastated by HIV/AIDS, and to support HIV/AIDS orphans so that they might contribute to the future of their nations rather than burden them, we cut this program once again.
On November 26, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization released its 2003 report on hunger. It found that after falling steadily during the 1990s, hunger is again on the rise. In the developing world, the number of malnourished people grew by an average of 4.5 million a year for the past 3 years. The report also found that hunger exacerbates the AIDS crisis, drives rural people into the cities, and forces women and children to trade sex for food and money.
Yet over the past 3 years, we have cut funding for the McGovern-Dole school feeding program so that it is now one-sixth of what it once was. This means that 84 out of every 100 children we were feeding and schooling under this program in 2001 have been cut off from this food source. They now either go to school hungry or have once again dropped out of school.
Mr. Speaker, this is a disgrace, plain and simple.
Mr. Speaker, we are going in the wrong direction, not just for the children of the world, but for the security of our Nation. If as a nation we are committed to defeating terrorism, then we must increase and fully fund programs like McGovern-Dole, along with other food aid and development programs.
If as a nation we are committed to addressing hunger, poverty, illiteracy, and ignorance, then we must increase and restore full funding to the McGovern-Dole program and our other food aid and development programs.
And if we, as a nation, are committed to helping educate the children of the world, especially girls, then we must increase and restore full funding to the McGovern-Dole program.
Mr. Speaker, I call on President Bush and the congressional leadership to restore full funding in fiscal year 2005 to the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education Program. It is truly a matter of life or death.
Congress of the United states,
Washington, DC, December 11, 2003.Hon. George W. Bush,President of the United States,Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. President: We are writing to urge you to provide
$300 million in your Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Proposal for the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program. We believe it is urgent to restore funding for this program at levels similar to those of the original pilot program.
We strongly believe this funding is critical for sustaining and expanding the McGovern-Dole Program in order to combat terrorism and to help build and consolidate democracy in the Middle East, southern Asia, the Near East, and in other regions critical to U.S. national security. As you are aware, the McGovern-Dole Program provides donations of U.S. agricultural products, as well as financial and technical assistance, for school feeding and maternal and child nutrition programs in low-income countries. We note that recommendations made by the General Accounting Office (GAO) in February 2002 on how to strengthen and improve the administration and implementation of school feeding programs were fully integrated into the law establishing the McGovern-Dole Program, enhancements that we believe contribute to its success.
Both the initial pilot program and the current McGovern-Dole Program have a proven track record at reducing the incidence of hunger among school-age children and improving literacy and primary education, especially among girls, in areas devastated by war, hunger, poverty, HIV/AIDS, and the mistreatment or marginalization of women and girls. School meals, teacher training, and related support have helped boost school enrollment and academic performance. McGovern-Dole nutrition and school feeding programs also improve the health and learning capacity of children both before they enter school and during the years of primary and elementary school.
In February 2003, the U.S. Department of Agriculture evaluated the McGovern-Dole pilot program and found significant positive results. Specifically--
``The results to date show measurable improvements in school enrollment, including increased access by girls. In projects involving more than 4,000 participating schools, the WFP reports an overall enrollment increase exceeding 10 percent, with an 11.7 percent increase in enrollment by girls. The PVO's report an overall enrollment increase of 5.75 percent in GFE-participating schools. In some projects, increases in enrollment were as high as 32 percent compared with enrollment rates over the previous three years.'' (USDA, The global Food for Education Pilot Program: A Review of Project Implementation and Impact, page 2, February 2003)
We firmly believe that these programs reduce the risk of terrorism by helping to eliminate the hopelessness and despair that breed terrorism. American products and commodities are directly associated with hunger alleviation and educational opportunity, encouraging support and good will for the United States in these communities and countries.
We strongly urge that you restore the capacity of this critically important program by providing $300 million for Fiscal Year 2005.
Sincerely,
James P. McGovern, Frank Wolf, Jo Ann Emerson, Marcy Kaptur, Doug Bereuter, Tom Lantos, Earl Pomeroy, Amo Houghton, Barbara Lee, Sam Graves, Edolphus Towns, Don Manzullo, Vic Snyder, Jim Leach, Tammy Baldwin, Christopher Smith (NJ), Marty Meehan, Doc Hastings (WA), Dennis Moore, George Nethercutt, John Olver, Jerry Moran (KS), Bennie G. Thompson (MS), Todd Tiahrt, Adam Schiff, David Price, Maurice Hinchey, James Oberstar, Betty McCollum,
William Delahunt, Bob Filner, Jan Schakowsky, Sheila Jackson Lee, Leonard Boswell, Gary Ackerman, George Miller, Dale Kildee, Julia Carson (IN), Albert Wynn, Carolyn Maloney, Bobby Rush, Diana Christensen, Raul M. Grijalva, Bob Etheridge, Pete Stark, Jim McDermott, Jim Matheson, Jerry Costello, Mike Capuano, Joseph Crowley, Susan Davis (CA), Rosa DeLauro, Martin Frost, Rick Larsen (WA), Sander Levin,
Ed Markey, John Tierney, Lynn Woolsey, Donald Payne, Hilda Solis, Mike McNulty, Elijah Cummings, Mike Doyle, Joseph Hoeffel, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Bernie Sanders, Sam Farr, Neil Abercrombie, Jim Marshall, Charles Gonzalez, Ruben Hinojosa, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Earl Blumenauer, Robert Wexler, Rob Andrews, Madeleine Z. Bordallo, Jose Serrano,
Maxine Waters, Lane Evans, Barney Frank, Ron Kind, Sanford Bishop, Jr., Sherrod Brown (OH), Henry Waxman, Steve Rothman, Nancy Pelosi, Dennis Kucinich, Tom Allen, Jim Moran (VA), Rick Boucher, Brad Sherman, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Lois Capps, Karen McCarthy, Patrick Kennedy (RI), Jane Harman, Alcee Hastings (FL), William Jefferson, Chris Van Hollen, Chaka Fattah, Stephen Lynch, Charles Rangel.
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