Recognizing the continued success of the Food for Peace Act.

IV 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. RES. 742 Recognizing the continued success of the Food for Peace Act. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 5, 2019 Mr. COSTA (for himself, Mr. ROUZER, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. FORTEN- BERRY, Ms. FUDGE, and Mr. MARSHALL) submitted the following resolu- tion; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in ad- dition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provi- sions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned RESOLUTION Recognizing the continued success of the Food for Peace Act. Whereas, on July 10, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Agricultural Trade Development and Assist- ance Act which created the Office of Food for Peace; Whereas the purpose of the Office of Food for Peace is to promote democratic values abroad, advance freedom and peace, and help to alleviate humanitarian crises through- out the world; Whereas the 2018 Global Nutrition Report reveals that 150,800,000 children under 5 years old worldwide are stunted as a result of malnutrition, 50,500,000 are se- VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:20 Dec 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR742.IH HR742 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HRES 742 IH verely malnourished, and 20,000,000 babies a year are born underweight; Whereas 16,400,000 children under 5 years old suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and require life-chang- ing, ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF), and Food for Peace is a major contributor to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for the purchase of RUTF, helping UNICEF reach more than 4,100,000 children with treatment for SAM in 2018, and supporting RUTF needs in 31 countries around the world; Whereas undernutrition contributes to approximately 45 per- cent of deaths of children under 5 years old worldwide; Whereas large numbers of vulnerable and chronically food-in- secure people reside in war-torn areas including Syria, South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, and Yemen; Whereas the United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that 6,600,000 people have been internally displaced in Syria, including 2,500,000 children, and 11,700,000 people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance which includes 6,500,000 food-insecure people; Whereas the United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that 4,800,000 people have been displaced by the ongoing con- flict in Yemen, and more than 24,000,000 Yemenis are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, including over 20,000,000 in need of food; Whereas the United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that 15,000,000 Yemenis are on the brink of starvation and 400,000 children are suffering from extreme malnutri- tion; Whereas up to 7,100,000 people in South Sudan require hu- manitarian assistance, nearly all of whom are facing VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:20 Dec 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR742.IH HR742 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HRES 742 IH acute food insecurity and need lifesaving aid provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other international donors; Whereas approximately 2,100,000 people in Somalia are in need of emergency food assistance due to high levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or higher) with the most affected areas including Awdal, Bari, Galgaduud, and Hiiraan; Whereas Nigeria, with the largest economy in Africa, still ex- periences massive income inequality, and almost half its population, more than 91,000,000 people, live in extreme poverty, and 3,000,000 people are severely food-insecure; Whereas nearly half of children under 5 years old in Guate- mala are stunted due to malnutrition, and in some areas the percentage is much higher, making it the highest in the region; Whereas Latin America and the Caribbean are most vulner- able to a range of natural hazards including droughts, earthquakes, forest fires, floods, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions which require robust humanitarian assistance, including food aid; Whereas hundreds of thousands of people who have fled Ven- ezuela are now facing serious food shortages and other hardships, which risk both lives and the stability of the region; Whereas women and children are disproportionately affected by food shortages and political instability; Whereas the assistance provided by Food for Peace programs helps to address the root causes of mass migration of populations from poverty-stricken and food-insecure re- gions; VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:20 Dec 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR742.IH HR742 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HRES 742 IH Whereas long-standing cooperation between Food for Peace and the United Nations World Food Programme has led to millions of people receiving critical food aid around the world; and Whereas the largest recipients of Food for Peace aid in 2018 were the conflict-torn regions of Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen, South Sudan, and Syria, all of which have large populations of refugees and other displaced persons whose lives have been irrevocably shattered by war and its aftermath: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 1 (1) reaffirms that— 2 (A) Food for Peace is an essential compo- 3 nent of global food security efforts; 4 (B) Food for Peace is an expression of the 5 generosity and goodwill of the people of the 6 United States toward the world’s most vulner- 7 able populations; 8 (C) food insecurity stems from an array of 9 factors, including military conflict, civil strife, 10 economic instability, underdeveloped food pro- 11 duction and market inclusion, corruption, and 12 natural disasters; 13 (D) Food for Peace helps to alleviate hu- 14 manitarian needs stemming from conflict and 15 natural disasters, helps to prevent the spread of 16 disease and malnutrition among pregnant 17 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:20 Dec 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR742.IH HR742 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HRES 742 IH women and children under 5 years old, and can 1 help to counteract cycles of violence; and 2 (E) Food for Peace contributes to the 3 spread and strengthening of American leader- 4 ship worldwide through the investment of 5 United States foreign aid and humanitarian as- 6 sistance and is therefore a key component of 7 American foreign policy; 8 (2) commends the Food for Peace program for 9 helping approximately 76,000,000 people in 59 10 countries in fiscal year 2018, including 68,000,000 11 people who received $3,200,000,000 in lifesaving 12 emergency assistance and 8,000,000 people who re- 13 ceived $430,000,000 in resilience-building develop- 14 ment assistance; 15 (3) commends Food for Peace for supporting 16 vulnerable communities around the world in coping 17 with crises as they make their journeys to self-reli- 18 ance; 19 (4) recognizes that— 20 (A) United States foreign assistance helps 21 create markets for American products by reduc- 22 ing poverty, increasing production, and creating 23 broadly shared wealth in developing countries; 24 and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:20 Dec 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR742.IH HR742 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HRES 742 IH (B) humanitarian assistance helps coun- 1 tries and communities recover from serious dis- 2 asters, crises, and emergencies, and puts them 3 back on the road to prosperity; and 4 (5) calls for continued prioritization of funding 5 for Food for Peace programs— 6 (A) to continue the mission of fighting 7 global food insecurity; 8 (B) to help to reduce the number of moth- 9 ers who lack the adequate prenatal nutrition 10 and the healthy foods to care for their children 11 once they are born; 12 (C) to help to reduce the number of in- 13 fants and children facing the lifelong effects of 14 malnutrition; 15 (D) to reduce the number of infants and 16 children dying from malnutrition-related causes 17 around the globe; 18 (E) to continue to support nonemergency 19 resiliency-building efforts to address the root 20 causes of hunger and reduce the need for future 21 emergency assistance; 22 (F) to maximize the economic and intellec- 23 tual potential of local communities and global 24 markets; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:20 Dec 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR742.IH HR742 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HRES 742 IH (G) to support American values; 1 (H) to provide for the basic human needs 2 of food and nutrition and for critical develop- 3 ment activities; 4 (I) to affirm the continued commitment of 5 the American people and their Government to 6 helping some of the most vulnerable populations 7 in the world at their times of greatest need; 8 (J) to promote democratic values world- 9 wide; and 10 (K) to continue to support these principles 11 as Food for Peace enters a new era as part of 12 the proposed Bureau for Humanitarian Assist- 13 ance, and to encourage alignment of food as- 14 sistance with other forms of disaster relief and 15 humanitarian aid to best help those in need. 16 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:20 Dec 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR742.IH HR742 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS