Global Report on Food Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mr. MAGAZINER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 13th time to call for the Trump administration to restore funding for lifesaving food aid for malnourished children across the world.

Every 7 seconds a child in this world dies of malnutrition, of starvation, needlessly and unnecessarily. For decades, the United States has saved lives, particularly by providing funding for ready-to- use therapeutic food, also known as Plumpy'Nut. This is a miracle treatment. This is a peanut-based paste that treats malnutrition, doesn't need to be refrigerated, and can be shipped around the world. You don't need to add water, and it saves the lives of children.

Edesia Nutrition in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, is one of the factories that produces Plumpy'Nut. From that factory alone, over the last decade, 25 million children have been saved with this treatment.

Funding was cut off at the beginning of the Trump administration under the so-called DOGE initiative, and every day that this product sits in warehouses in Rhode Island is a day that children around the world are unnecessarily dying.

Now, the good news is that Elon Musk, Marco Rubio, and others have said that this funding will be restored. In fact, just yesterday, at his Senate hearing, Secretary Rubio said again that essential humanitarian aid, he meant food aid, will be continued. So do it already.

It is good that the administration is saying that they intend to continue providing this aid around the world, but they need to do it. Again, there are thousands of boxes of this ready-to-use food sitting in warehouses here in the United States that should be getting to the children who need it.

Every day that the United States fails to provide this aid is a day that China and our other adversaries have an opportunity to step into the void and earn goodwill around the world.

As the Secretary pointed out yesterday--and Secretary Rubio said this--China's generosity is not free. China's generosity comes with a price. It comes with a price of subservience and dependency on the Chinese Communist Party. That is not what we want.

We want the developing world to be allied with the United States, for our own reasons: so that we can have access to critical minerals, so that we can have access to intelligence, and so that we can beat back terrorist organizations that would otherwise threaten U.S. interests.

We want the goodwill of the developing world, and we can maintain that goodwill by continuing our commitment to doing our part to end global hunger with U.S.-produced products, sourced from U.S. farmers, manufactured in U.S. factories that help build U.S. goodwill around the world.

That is what we want to continue. We do not want to give an opportunity to China or anybody else to fill the void that is being created right now.

The Global Report on Food Crises published last Friday by the U.N. confirms what we have been warning. The number of people facing famine has more than doubled in the last year. Malnutrition globally is on the rise. This is a global emergency, one that the United States has the greatest capacity to help solve.

The burden should not and cannot fall entirely on us, but leadership comes with a responsibility. We have the responsibility to continue to do our part. The moment is calling us.

Once again, I will rise in this Chamber every single day until the administration does what it says it is going to do and continues funding ready-to-use therapeutic food.

I am not asking the administration to change their policy. We are asking them to just execute on their stated policy, and do what they said they were going to do, which is: Continue the funding. Resume the flow of aid. Save the lives of malnourished children around the world, and strengthen America in the process.

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