International Food Crisis and Haiti

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, every five seconds, a child dies from hunger-related causes. That's the equivalent of 21 school busses full of children being killed every day. With the current food crisis, even more people are being put at risk of starvation as the prices of daily food staples move out of reach. This is not just tragic; it is shameful. We have the resources necessary to end hunger. What we need is the political will to do so.

Madam Speaker, I've never heard any Member of Congress declare that he or she is pro-hunger. But regrettably, too few are actively working to rid our Nation and the world of this terrible scourge. I am very proud of the members of the bipartisan House Hunger Caucus who have taken up the task of raising the profile of this domestic and global issue and helping to educate their colleagues about how we can address and end not just the crisis caused by rising food costs, but hunger itself.

As the world faces a crisis of hunger, it is increasingly more important that Members of Congress speak out against hunger and take action to ensure that action is taken to truly address the crisis. Thank you to Yvette Clarke and Sheila Jackson-Lee for their leadership in organizing this Special Order Hour and for all those participating tonight. The time to end hunger is now. We cannot wait while more children and families go without food, or even starve to death.

Tonight, in the aftermath of the earthquake in China and the cyclone in Burma, we hold the victims of these disasters in our thoughts. We see, once again, the generosity of the world in reaching out to these victims of natural catastrophe.

But the children of Haiti, the urban poor of Manila, the refugees in Darfur--and, literally, the hundreds of millions of people around the world and in our own country who do not know whether there will be food on the table tonight or tomorrow--our thoughts and our prayers are with them, too. But more importantly, we send to them our commitment to take action on their behalf, and to take action in support of their own efforts to help themselves. Together we can overcome this current crisis, and together we can end hunger in our lifetime.

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