[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 742 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
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.
Fortenberry, Ms. Fudge, and Mr. Marshall) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and
in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions 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 Assistance 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 throughout 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 severely 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-changing, 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 percent of deaths of
children under 5 years old worldwide;
Whereas large numbers of vulnerable and chronically food-insecure 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 conflict 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 malnutrition;
Whereas up to 7,100,000 people in South Sudan require humanitarian assistance,
nearly all of whom are facing 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 experiences 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 Guatemala 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 vulnerable 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 Venezuela 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 regions;
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) reaffirms that--
(A) Food for Peace is an essential component of
global food security efforts;
(B) Food for Peace is an expression of the
generosity and goodwill of the people of the United
States toward the world's most vulnerable populations;
(C) food insecurity stems from an array of factors,
including military conflict, civil strife, economic
instability, underdeveloped food production and market
inclusion, corruption, and natural disasters;
(D) Food for Peace helps to alleviate humanitarian
needs stemming from conflict and natural disasters,
helps to prevent the spread of disease and malnutrition
among pregnant women and children under 5 years old,
and can help to counteract cycles of violence; and
(E) Food for Peace contributes to the spread and
strengthening of American leadership worldwide through
the investment of United States foreign aid and
humanitarian assistance and is therefore a key
component of American foreign policy;
(2) commends the Food for Peace program for helping
approximately 76,000,000 people in 59 countries in fiscal year
2018, including 68,000,000 people who received $3,200,000,000
in lifesaving emergency assistance and 8,000,000 people who
received $430,000,000 in resilience-building development
assistance;
(3) commends Food for Peace for supporting vulnerable
communities around the world in coping with crises as they make
their journeys to self-reliance;
(4) recognizes that--
(A) United States foreign assistance helps create
markets for American products by reducing poverty,
increasing production, and creating broadly shared
wealth in developing countries; and
(B) humanitarian assistance helps countries and
communities recover from serious disasters, crises, and
emergencies, and puts them back on the road to
prosperity; and
(5) calls for continued prioritization of funding for Food
for Peace programs--
(A) to continue the mission of fighting global food
insecurity;
(B) to help to reduce the number of mothers who
lack the adequate prenatal nutrition and the healthy
foods to care for their children once they are born;
(C) to help to reduce the number of infants and
children facing the lifelong effects of malnutrition;
(D) to reduce the number of infants and children
dying from malnutrition-related causes around the
globe;
(E) to continue to support nonemergency resiliency-
building efforts to address the root causes of hunger
and reduce the need for future emergency assistance;
(F) to maximize the economic and intellectual
potential of local communities and global markets;
(G) to support American values;
(H) to provide for the basic human needs of food
and nutrition and for critical development activities;
(I) to affirm the continued commitment of the
American people and their Government to helping some of
the most vulnerable populations in the world at their
times of greatest need;
(J) to promote democratic values worldwide; and
(K) to continue to support these principles as Food
for Peace enters a new era as part of the proposed
Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, and to encourage
alignment of food assistance with other forms of
disaster relief and humanitarian aid to best help those
in need.
<all>