Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2419, Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. I thank my colleague from California for yielding me the time and for his work on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule and in support of the underlying legislation.

My colleagues, tonight millions of people here in the United States and around the world, many of them children, will go to bed hungry. They may not be in this Chamber, but they must remain in our thoughts. This bill does not go as far as I would like in tackling hunger, but it represents real progress and real reform.

I want to commend Chairman Peterson and his colleagues on the committee for their hard work, but I also want to thank Speaker Pelosi and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, both of whom have worked personally and passionately with us over the last few days to make improvements to the nutrition programs in this bill.

The bill before us begins to reverse some of the terrible damage done to nutrition programs over the past several years. For too long, hungry people were an afterthought in this Congress. For too long, people on food stamps fell further and further behind as the Republican Congress searched high and low for more ways to cut taxes for rich people. Those days have come to an end, Mr. Speaker.

It has not been easy to find funding for these vital programs, and here's why. Unlike the Republicans, we are actually paying for the bills we pass. It would have been easy to put the cost of this bill on the national credit card. Instead, the increases to the nutrition program in this bill are paid for in this bill. That is an enormous and welcome development.

Further, the bill includes increased guaranteed funding for the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition program. McGovern-Dole has a proven track record of fighting hunger and promoting education by providing meals to chronically hungry school-age children in the world's poorest countries. Where the McGovern-Dole program is offered, enrollment and attendance rates increased significantly, especially for girls. Providing food at school is a simple but effective method to get children into school, improve literacy, and help break the cycle of poverty.

These programs demonstrate America's generosity and goodwill, and they reflect our deepest moral values. They promote our national security, and they offer an alternative to children who otherwise might be recruited by groups that provide meals in return for becoming child soldiers or for attendance at extremist schools that serve as a breeding ground for hatred and violence.

By making the funding guaranteed, we can stop the practice of beginning a school feeding program only to cut it off when Congress doesn't appropriate enough money, because the only thing more cruel than not feeding a hungry child is feeding a hungry child for a while and then stopping.

As I said, Mr. Speaker, the bill before us does not do as much as I would like. And I will keep fighting, through the amendment process and beyond, to increase funding for hunger and nutrition programs here at home and around the world. This is not the beginning of the end. It's the end of the beginning. This is a start.

Mr. Speaker, hunger is a political condition. We have the resources to end hunger. What we need is the political will. Let us rededicate ourselves to helping those who need help the most.

I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this bill.

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