Calling on Trump Administration to Restore Food Aid

Floor Speech

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Mr. MAGAZINER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 19th time to call on the Trump administration to restore funding for lifesaving food aid for malnourished children.

I am a father. I have a 3-year-old and 1-year-old at home, Max and Lucy. Like any parent, I want the very best for my kids. I am so lucky that I do not have to worry about whether they will be fed today or tomorrow. Yet, around the world, malnutrition and starvation is the number one cause of death for children.

When a child suffers from malnutrition, it stunts their growth. Their organs shut down. For toddlers, like my 3-year-old, they can have their body weight reduced to be as low as an infant's.

When they suffer from extreme malnutrition, they can't be fed traditional food anymore. In order to save their lives and to cure their malnutrition, they need this: Plumpy'Nut. It is a packet of fortified paste. They take one of these per day. After a month, they are back up to normal body weight and healthy once again.

Edesia Nutrition in North Kingstown is one of two places in the country that produces Plumpy'Nut. All the ingredients, the peanuts, soybeans, sugar, and dairy, come from American farms and factories. It is manufactured here in the United States and, until recently, was shipped around the world, reaching 400,000 children a month.

Think about that, Mr. Speaker. That is 400,000 children a month whose lives were being saved--that is, until Elon Musk and the Trump administration cut off funding for this program.

There is nothing woke about this. This is not waste. This is not fraud. This is nutrition for starving kids, and it needs to be restored.

These production lines have been shut down. There are boxes and boxes of this stuff sitting in a warehouse in Rhode Island instead of getting to the kids who need it.

What is the impact of this halt in funding? Not only does it mean that there are more kids starving around the world by the thousands, but it also means that our adversaries, particularly China, have a golden opportunity to swoop in to the rescue and build good will with nations all around the world.

Mr. Speaker, foreign aid is not just charity. It serves our interests as a country, as well, when we build good will with nations that have rare earth minerals and can assist us in intelligence gathering against terrorist organizations and our other adversaries. This is part of how we build strong relationships around the world to make Americans safer. When we cut off this aid, which is a tiny, tiny fraction of the Federal budget, then it only helps our adversaries.

The entire funding for this program was about $80 million a year. The Cannon House Office Building across the street is being renovated at a cost of $800 million. We are spending 10 times as much to renovate our office building as we were spending a year to save the lives of thousands and thousands of children suffering from malnutrition. What kind of priorities are those?

Here is the thing: The good news is that Trump administration officials, including Secretary Rubio, have said over and over that they are going to restore funding for this program. They admit that this is not waste or fraud but that this is part of the core mission of what USAID was supposed to be.

That is great. Why haven't they sent the money? What is the holdup? It has been 5 months now, and they have said over and over that they intend to restore funding for emergency food aid. They just haven't done it yet. Why not? Every day that goes by is a day that children are unnecessarily going hungry.

Once again, I am going to rise in this Chamber every day until the administration keeps their word and restores funding for emergency food aid for children around the world.

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