IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 742 

Recognizing the continued success of the Food for Peace Act. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 5, 2019 

Mr. COSTA (for himself, Mr. ROUZER, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. FORTENBERRY, Ms. FUDGE, and Mr. MARSHALL) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently 

determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the continued success of the Food for Peace 

Act. 

Whereas, on July 10, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower 

signed the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act which created the Office of Food for Peace; 

Whereas the purpose of the Office of Food for Peace is to 

promote democratic values abroad, advance freedom and 

peace, and help to alleviate humanitarian crises throughout the world; 

Whereas the 2018 Global Nutrition Report reveals that 

150,800,000 children under 5 years old worldwide are 

stunted as a result of malnutrition, 50,500,000 are seVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:20 Dec 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR742.IH HR742

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verely malnourished, and 20,000,000 babies a year are 

born underweight; 

Whereas 16,400,000 children under 5 years old suffer from 

severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and require life-changing, ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF), and Food 

for Peace is a major contributor to the United Nations 

Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for the purchase of RUTF, 

helping UNICEF reach more than 4,100,000 children 

with treatment for SAM in 2018, and supporting RUTF 

needs in 31 countries around the world; 

Whereas undernutrition contributes to approximately 45 percent of deaths of children under 5 years old worldwide; 

Whereas large numbers of vulnerable and chronically food-insecure people reside in war-torn areas including Syria, 

South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, and Yemen; 

Whereas the United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that 

6,600,000 people have been internally displaced in Syria, 

including 2,500,000 children, and 11,700,000 people are 

in urgent need of humanitarian assistance which includes 

6,500,000 food-insecure people; 

Whereas the United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that 

4,800,000 people have been displaced by the ongoing conflict in Yemen, and more than 24,000,000 Yemenis are 

in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, including over 

20,000,000 in need of food; 

Whereas the United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that 

15,000,000 Yemenis are on the brink of starvation and 

400,000 children are suffering from extreme malnutrition; 

Whereas up to 7,100,000 people in South Sudan require humanitarian assistance, nearly all of whom are facing 


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acute food insecurity and need lifesaving aid provided by 

the United States Agency for International Development 

(USAID) and other international donors; 

Whereas approximately 2,100,000 people in Somalia are in 

need of emergency food assistance due to high levels of 

food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or higher) with the most 

affected areas including Awdal, Bari, Galgaduud, and 

Hiiraan; 

Whereas Nigeria, with the largest economy in Africa, still experiences massive income inequality, and almost half its 

population, more than 91,000,000 people, live in extreme 

poverty, and 3,000,000 people are severely food-insecure; 

Whereas nearly half of children under 5 years old in Guatemala are stunted due to malnutrition, and in some areas 

the percentage is much higher, making it the highest in 

the region; 

Whereas Latin America and the Caribbean are most vulnerable to a range of natural hazards including droughts, 

earthquakes, forest fires, floods, hurricanes, and volcanic 

eruptions which require robust humanitarian assistance, 

including food aid; 

Whereas hundreds of thousands of people who have fled Venezuela are now facing serious food shortages and other 

hardships, which risk both lives and the stability of the 

region; 

Whereas women and children are disproportionately affected 

by food shortages and political instability; 

Whereas the assistance provided by Food for Peace programs 

helps to address the root causes of mass migration of 

populations from poverty-stricken and food-insecure regions; 


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Whereas long-standing cooperation between Food for Peace 

and the United Nations World Food Programme has led 

to millions of people receiving critical food aid around the 

world; and 

Whereas the largest recipients of Food for Peace aid in 2018 

were the conflict-torn regions of Somalia, Ethiopia, 

Yemen, South Sudan, and Syria, all of which have large 

populations of refugees and other displaced persons 

whose lives have been irrevocably shattered by war and 

its aftermath: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) reaffirms that— 

3 (A) Food for Peace is an essential compo4 nent of global food security efforts; 

5 (B) Food for Peace is an expression of the 

6 generosity and goodwill of the people of the 

7 United States toward the world’s most vulner8 able populations; 

9 (C) food insecurity stems from an array of 

10 factors, including military conflict, civil strife, 

11 economic instability, underdeveloped food pro12 duction and market inclusion, corruption, and 

13 natural disasters; 

14 (D) Food for Peace helps to alleviate hu15 manitarian needs stemming from conflict and 

16 natural disasters, helps to prevent the spread of 

17 disease and malnutrition among pregnant 


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1 women and children under 5 years old, and can 

2 help to counteract cycles of violence; and 

3 (E) Food for Peace contributes to the 

4 spread and strengthening of American leader5 ship worldwide through the investment of 

6 United States foreign aid and humanitarian as7 sistance and is therefore a key component of 

8 American foreign policy; 

9 (2) commends the Food for Peace program for 

10 helping approximately 76,000,000 people in 59 

11 countries in fiscal year 2018, including 68,000,000 

12 people who received $3,200,000,000 in lifesaving 

13 emergency assistance and 8,000,000 people who re14 ceived $430,000,000 in resilience-building develop15 ment assistance; 

16 (3) commends Food for Peace for supporting 

17 vulnerable communities around the world in coping 

18 with crises as they make their journeys to self-reli19 ance; 

20 (4) recognizes that— 

21 (A) United States foreign assistance helps 

22 create markets for American products by reduc23 ing poverty, increasing production, and creating 

24 broadly shared wealth in developing countries; 

25 and 


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1 (B) humanitarian assistance helps coun2 tries and communities recover from serious dis3 asters, crises, and emergencies, and puts them 

4 back on the road to prosperity; and 

5 (5) calls for continued prioritization of funding 

6 for Food for Peace programs— 

7 (A) to continue the mission of fighting 

8 global food insecurity; 

9 (B) to help to reduce the number of moth10 ers who lack the adequate prenatal nutrition 

11 and the healthy foods to care for their children 

12 once they are born; 

13 (C) to help to reduce the number of in14 fants and children facing the lifelong effects of 

15 malnutrition; 

16 (D) to reduce the number of infants and 

17 children dying from malnutrition-related causes 

18 around the globe; 

19 (E) to continue to support nonemergency 

20 resiliency-building efforts to address the root 

21 causes of hunger and reduce the need for future 

22 emergency assistance; 

23 (F) to maximize the economic and intellec24 tual potential of local communities and global 

25 markets; 


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1 (G) to support American values; 

2 (H) to provide for the basic human needs 

3 of food and nutrition and for critical develop4 ment activities; 

5 (I) to affirm the continued commitment of 

6 the American people and their Government to 

7 helping some of the most vulnerable populations 

8 in the world at their times of greatest need; 

9 (J) to promote democratic values world10 wide; and 

11 (K) to continue to support these principles 

12 as Food for Peace enters a new era as part of 

13 the proposed Bureau for Humanitarian Assist14 ance, and to encourage alignment of food as15 sistance with other forms of disaster relief and 

16 humanitarian aid to best help those in need. 

Æ 


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