ANALYSIS-Congress bucks Bush administration food-aid plans
15:08 23Jan08 -ANALYSIS-Congress bucks Bush administration food-aid plans
By Missy Ryan
WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The Bush administration is
expected to lose several pivotal battles over food aid in
Congress as lawmakers finalize new legislation without measures
officials argue are needed to deliver help quickly when hunger
strikes.
Aid groups are watching closely as lawmakers prepare for
what might be the last round of arm-twisting in the farm bill,
the $286 billion package that will set farm subsidies, food
stamps, and food-aid policy for the next five years.
So far, the administration has struck out on its repeated
calls to loosen onerous rules that tie food assistance to
U.S.-produced crops which are shipped, largely on U.S. vessels,
to needy nations as far away as Bangladesh.
The administration's proposal would have allowed up to a
quarter of the food used in U.S. assistance programs to be
bought from producers overseas. But it has been a perpetual
loser with the grain producers and shipping companies that have
historically been instrumental in securing generous U.S. aid.
"It's another case of good policy getting rolled by vested
interests," said Charles Uphaus, a food aid expert in
Washington at Bread for the World, a Christian advocacy group.
The plan for local purchases was spurned by House and
Senate lawmakers when they approved their respective blueprints
for the farm bill last year.
It's also one more reason that President George W. Bush is
threatening to veto the farm bill, which budget hawks say is
long on spending and short on needed agriculture reform.
But with time growing short on the farm bill, aid groups and
other onlookers expect only minor tinkering to the bill's food
aid provisions when House and Senate lawmakers broker a
compromise bill to be sent to Bush.
Aid workers likewise expect Congress to defy administration
advice and carve out around $450 million a year from the main
food aid budget for longer-term, nonemergency projects.
That set-aside for nonemergency aid would be in line with
what the House passed in July, and would eat almost 40 percent
of the overall emergency food aid budget.
COMPETING VISIONS FOR AID
Unlike emergency aid, the nonemergency programs channel
commodity donations to aid groups, which sell the crops within
poor countries to fund projects supporting more productive
farms, improved nutrition, or better local sanitation.
According to Bob Zachritz, senior policy adviser at World
Vision, an aid group that runs nonemergency food aid programs in
more than 30 countries, the approach is based on the adage, "Do
you give a person a fish or do you teach them to fish?"
He said the nonemergency programs, which have received
about $350 million a year in recent years, can be more costly in
the short run, but are ultimately more efficient because they
can break the cycle of famine and food crises.
The programs are controversial in and out of government.
The administration warns the larger nonemergency set-aside
would sap funds needed to respond quickly to acute food
shortages and would endanger the lives of up to 8 million people
in desperate places like Sudan.
Shortfalls in emergency funds, critics argue, force the
government to run to Congress for extra money in a supplemental
spending bill. But the glacial pace of business on Capitol
Hill's has sometimes meant that aid arrives too late.
The Senate set aside $600 million for nonemergency aid in
the farm bill it passed late last year. Emmy Simmons, an
ex-U.S. Agency for International Development official, expects
the compromise bill to come in closer to the House plan.
WHIPSAW RESPONSE
"If this goes into law, we're going to have five years of
whipsaw humanitarian assistance," said Gawain Kripke, policy
and research director at aid and advocacy group Oxfam America.
"People could die, and it's been treated like a game of
chicken between Congress and the administration," he said.
Some expect lawmakers to bow to White House demands that
administration officials be granted the ability to tap the
nonemergency funds if dire emergencies arise and emergency aid
has already been depleted.
The Senate farm bill contained no such waiver authority; the
House-passed version did contain a waiver authority which
critics call far too restrictive.
Conference negotiators for the farm bill have not yet been
appointed, and it remains unclear how soon a final bill could
land on Bush's desk.
House Agriculture Committee Collin Peterson said on Tuesday
that lawmakers were aiming to have a bill signed as early as
mid-February.
(Editing by Matthew Lewis)
((Reuters Messaging: missy.ryan.reuters.com@reuters.net; +
202-898-8376))
By Missy Ryan
WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The Bush administration is
expected to lose several pivotal battles over food aid in
Congress as lawmakers finalize new legislation without measures
officials argue are needed to deliver help quickly when hunger
strikes.
Aid groups are watching closely as lawmakers prepare for
what might be the last round of arm-twisting in the farm bill,
the $286 billion package that will set farm subsidies, food
stamps, and food-aid policy for the next five years.
So far, the administration has struck out on its repeated
calls to loosen onerous rules that tie food assistance to
U.S.-produced crops which are shipped, largely on U.S. vessels,
to needy nations as far away as Bangladesh.
The administration's proposal would have allowed up to a
quarter of the food used in U.S. assistance programs to be
bought from producers overseas. But it has been a perpetual
loser with the grain producers and shipping companies that have
historically been instrumental in securing generous U.S. aid.
"It's another case of good policy getting rolled by vested
interests," said Charles Uphaus, a food aid expert in
Washington at Bread for the World, a Christian advocacy group.
The plan for local purchases was spurned by House and
Senate lawmakers when they approved their respective blueprints
for the farm bill last year.
It's also one more reason that President George W. Bush is
threatening to veto the farm bill, which budget hawks say is
long on spending and short on needed agriculture reform.
But with time growing short on the farm bill, aid groups and
other onlookers expect only minor tinkering to the bill's food
aid provisions when House and Senate lawmakers broker a
compromise bill to be sent to Bush.
Aid workers likewise expect Congress to defy administration
advice and carve out around $450 million a year from the main
food aid budget for longer-term, nonemergency projects.
That set-aside for nonemergency aid would be in line with
what the House passed in July, and would eat almost 40 percent
of the overall emergency food aid budget.
COMPETING VISIONS FOR AID
Unlike emergency aid, the nonemergency programs channel
commodity donations to aid groups, which sell the crops within
poor countries to fund projects supporting more productive
farms, improved nutrition, or better local sanitation.
According to Bob Zachritz, senior policy adviser at World
Vision, an aid group that runs nonemergency food aid programs in
more than 30 countries, the approach is based on the adage, "Do
you give a person a fish or do you teach them to fish?"
He said the nonemergency programs, which have received
about $350 million a year in recent years, can be more costly in
the short run, but are ultimately more efficient because they
can break the cycle of famine and food crises.
The programs are controversial in and out of government.
The administration warns the larger nonemergency set-aside
would sap funds needed to respond quickly to acute food
shortages and would endanger the lives of up to 8 million people
in desperate places like Sudan.
Shortfalls in emergency funds, critics argue, force the
government to run to Congress for extra money in a supplemental
spending bill. But the glacial pace of business on Capitol
Hill's has sometimes meant that aid arrives too late.
The Senate set aside $600 million for nonemergency aid in
the farm bill it passed late last year. Emmy Simmons, an
ex-U.S. Agency for International Development official, expects
the compromise bill to come in closer to the House plan.
WHIPSAW RESPONSE
"If this goes into law, we're going to have five years of
whipsaw humanitarian assistance," said Gawain Kripke, policy
and research director at aid and advocacy group Oxfam America.
"People could die, and it's been treated like a game of
chicken between Congress and the administration," he said.
Some expect lawmakers to bow to White House demands that
administration officials be granted the ability to tap the
nonemergency funds if dire emergencies arise and emergency aid
has already been depleted.
The Senate farm bill contained no such waiver authority; the
House-passed version did contain a waiver authority which
critics call far too restrictive.
Conference negotiators for the farm bill have not yet been
appointed, and it remains unclear how soon a final bill could
land on Bush's desk.
House Agriculture Committee Collin Peterson said on Tuesday
that lawmakers were aiming to have a bill signed as early as
mid-February.
(Editing by Matthew Lewis)
((Reuters Messaging: missy.ryan.reuters.com@reuters.net; +
202-898-8376))
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.
China executes two for tainted milk