United States HRES 742: Recognizing the continued success of the Food for Peace Act.

Bill Text

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-
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•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
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•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;
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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, Ethiopi