April 16, 2015 (WASHINGTON) – This statement is delivered on behalf of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network by Co-Chairs George Ingram, Carolyn Miles, and Connie Veillette:
MFAN wishes to thank the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, especially Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN) and Ranking Member Ben Cardin (D-MD), for convening this week’s landmark hearing on the importance of reforming U.S. food assistance. U.S. food aid programs are instrumental in providing life-saving support to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable, but the current system needs to be improved to deliver more for both hungry people abroad and U.S. tax dollars.
Current laws requiring that food be shipped from the U.S. on U.S. flagged vessels results in time lags and increased transportation and administrative costs that put lives at risk. In addition, delivering U.S. food rather than purchasing locally or regionally sourced food, when available, can inhibit building self-sustaining agricultural systems. Common-sense reforms should be enacted to allow our food aid programs to deliver results faster, more effectively, and more efficiently – at no additional cost to American taxpayers.
We have already seen the positive impact of the small increases in flexibility that were included in the 2014 Farm Bill and the FY2014 appropriations bills. With an estimated one in nine people in the world being food insecure, this is a critical time to ensure that U.S. food aid programs have all the necessary tools at their disposal to respond quickly and effectively to those in need.
We are encouraged by the bipartisan efforts of Congressional champions like Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Chris Coons (D-DE) to fix our food aid system, such as the Food for Peace Reform Act (S. 525). We look forward to continuing to work with Congress to ensure our food aid dollars have the maximum impact.