WASHINGTON, July 6, 2016 - The chairman of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee assured Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway Tuesday night that
legislation authorizing a new food aid program can’t be used to force changes
in the way Food for Peace operates. The new Emergency Food Security Program
allows the use of electronic vouchers and locally procured commodities to feed
refugees and other people in crisis. Food for Peace has long required the
use of U.S.-grown commodities.
Some supporters of EFSP see it as a model for overhauling
Food for Peace, but Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said the two
programs are intended to operate in parallel. EFSP is “meant to complement, and
not replace, time-tested approaches to delivering food aid including the Food
for Peace program,” he told Conaway, R-Texas. The bill contains language
intended to ensure the rules for EFSP wouldn't apply to Food for Peace and
other existing aid programs
Congressional authorization for EFSP is included in the
Senate-passed Global Food Security Act, which the House debated Tuesday
night. A final vote on the bill is scheduled for today. The U.S. Agency
for International Development has been operating EFSP on its own since 2010 out
of a disaster assistance account. The Global Food Security Act also would authorize,
for the first time, the Obama administration’s Feed the Future
initiative.
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