U.S. Funding Cuts Mean Greater Hunger, Illiteracy and Poverty for Children Around the World

U.S. FUNDING CUTS MEAN GREATER HUNGER, ILLITERACY AND POVERTY FOR CHILDREN AROUND THE WORLD -- (House of Representatives - February 03, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of January 20, 2004, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the President released his fiscal year 2005 budget proposal. Over the next few days there will be many speeches and analyses of his funding proposals. I would like to describe how previous budget cuts have affected just one program that both reduces hunger among children around the world and gets these kids into school. The George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education Program began in 2001 with a $300 million pilot program. Using American surplus commodities, organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children and Mercy Corps and the U.N. World Food Program carried out school feeding programs in over 40 countries. Seven million children received at least one nutritious meal every day in a school setting through this program.

Last year, USDA evaluated these programs and found them to be very effective in reducing hunger and dropout rates among many of the world's most vulnerable children. Enrollment, attendance and academic performance increased, especially among girls. In short, providing food for education gave poor children, including girls, a new future. Unfortunately, since 2002, when Congress made this initiative permanent, McGovern-Dole has suffered significant funding cuts. In fiscal year 2003, President Bush only asked for and received $100 million. And now in fiscal year 2004, the program will receive only $50 million.

What does it mean for a program like McGovern-Dole to go from $300 million to $100 million? It means literally that food was taken away from nearly 5 million hungry children and many of their families were forced to take them out of school. In Nicaragua, 339,000 preschool and primary school children benefiting from McGovern-Dole were cut off from this food source. In El Salvador, another 45,000 children stopped receiving food at school. In Honduras, anemia among children benefiting from McGovern-Dole was reduced by 50 percent. Sadly, 167,000 of those children have now been cut off from the program. In Peru, 70,000 children living in areas of high chronic malnutrition no longer receive meals or snacks in school. In Colombia, where we routinely send hundreds of millions of dollars each year in military and security aid, we ended McGovern-Dole funding, forcing USAID to pick up the costs and stopping a planned expansion of the program to 165,000 more children.

In 2003, I visited one of the McGovern-Dole programs in Colombia. I was told by mothers, fathers, grandmothers and community leaders how the school and the meals were the one stable reality in these children's uncertain lives, and often the only food these children receive. And I was told time and again how these kids often leave home and join one of the guerilla or paramilitary groups simply because these groups can provide them a daily meal.

So, thanks to our funding cuts, we are robbing money from USAID development programs to pick up the costs originally covered under McGovern-Dole. Does this make sense to anyone? School feeding programs in Chad and Kenya were also especially hard hit by the McGovern-Dole cutbacks, and 125,000 children in Congo and 35,000 in Eritrea also lost their funding. In Vietnam, the McGovern-Dole program administered by Land O'Lakes that provided meals to over 700,000 children was eliminated. A similar program in Bangladesh reaching 350,000 children has just run out of funds. Mr. Speaker, the list goes on and on and on.

Eliminating these programs also means that food produced by our hardworking farmers no longer finds its way to hungry school children around the world. Mr. Speaker, the McGovern-Dole program deserves to have its funding restored, not just because these programs work, not just because they help our farmers, not just because they reduce hunger among the world's most desperate children, not just because they get poor families to send and keep their children in school but because these programs, I believe, are central to our struggle to defeat terrorism.

For fiscal year 2005, President Bush has proposed $75 million for McGovern-Dole, a modest increase from last year's devastating cutback to $50 million. I am glad to see the number going back up, but it is simply not enough. I would call upon my colleagues and the Bush administration to find a way to bring the funding levels for McGovern-Dole back to $300 million.

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