It is a special privilege to be on the floor tonight with a very distinguished Member of Congress and my coleader and cosponsor of this Special Order tonight, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke. Might I note the special presence, if you will, of…
It is a special privilege to be on the floor tonight with a very distinguished Member of Congress and my coleader and cosponsor of this Special Order tonight, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke.
Might I note the special presence, if you will, of a number of Members from the Congress who have already spoken and pay tribute to their presence here, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congressman Al Green, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, for their passion and commitment and take note and pay special tribute to our speaker tonight, who rounds out the circle. And we appreciate her for her attentiveness to this very important discussion and debate. And, likewise, let me add an appreciation for the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, the officers and members, who have seen fit to be the conscience of this Congress.
We have been particularly blessed by Congresswoman Clarke's presence because I think she represents really a particularly unique congressional district. It has a history of Shirley Chisolm, and of course her predecessor, Mr. Owens. But as the district has grown, I guess because of the initial history of Congresswoman Chisolm from the Caribbean. As the district has grown, it really exemplifies the tentacles of America. It is really, I guess, the cornerstone of what North and South America are about in the Caribbean because your district has this array of constituencies who represent South and Central America, the Caribbean, and other parts. It shows this unique place called America because when I say America, I am talking about South America, Central America, the Caribbean, this whole part of the world. For that reason, your insight is crucial.
We have seen the neglect of the Caribbean over the last 8 years, frankly. And I don't think there would be any debate on that question. I do know that there are concerned persons in the administration. But, Congresswoman Clarke, I have sat in meetings at the White House, I have sat in meetings, frankly, with representatives or Assistant Secretary of the State Department that sit in hearings and, frankly, you had to argue with them about the circumstances.
I guess one comes to mind, and I am going to focus on this food crisis, but I think I relayed to you one meeting in the White House that really required members of our caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, frankly, that song, I shall not be moved. It required persons not to be moved until we had an opportunity to speak to the President of the United States. Of course, that was the time of crisis in the removal of then-President Aristide. Of course, President Preval worked with him as a prime minister. Then we had an Assistant Secretary for Western Affairs who was in fact, how shall I call it, an outright argument about the rightness of what we were doing for Haiti.
Frankly, I think as Americans representing such a diverse Nation, we should have a better attitude about allies, and Haiti is an ally. As you know your history, Haitians fought alongside of us. It is the oldest Democratic Nation in the Caribbean. Its independence was quick, was immediate almost, because of their great and wonderful founder, revolutionary that, of course, we saw many of his pictures, Toussaint Louverture, that we saw many of his pictures in Haiti.
So I say all this to say why do we come to this? Why are we at this point? Why do we need to be on the floor of the House? Although these are not exactly pictures taken recently in Haiti, the children symbolize what we left in Haiti, because we had an urgent mission. We had to meet with President Preval. Certainly the rural areas were there, but because it was an urgent mission, we had to focus our trip on that.
I can imagine when the President told us that 40 percent of the people in Haiti are eating one meal, and the word people, that means children, and everyone knows the results that occur when children go hungry. They are stunted in growth. They are certainly victims of malnutrition. They are stunted mentally. Who can go to school on a hungry stomach? One of the reasons we had the breakfast program and the lunch program here in the United States of America is the fact that we have studies that show the distinction between children who eat, nourished, and how they learn, versus a hungry child. See a quiet child, inattentive in a classroom, you can go to the source most likely. Can you imagine a country of children who are hungry?
Of course, these faces, for all we know, represent children in Haiti, of which on this particular trip we were not able to see who may be huddled in the various mountains and hills looking for food. And so if I might just share with you that right now we know that there are 850 million people who are chronically or acutely malnourished. That includes the people of Haiti. Over 300 million of these individuals are children.
Malnutrition caused by chronic hunger leads to the death of an estimated 5,600,000 children under 5 years old. According to UNICEF, an estimated 146 million children, roughly one in four children under 5 years old are underweight. According to a study conducted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 45 percent of children who died after contracting measles were malnourished, as were 60 percent of children who died after contracting severe diarrhea. An estimate 168 million children under age 5 in developing countries face potential growth retardation, also known as stunting, as a result of chronic hunger and malnutrition. Approximately 42 percent of children under 5 years old are stunted in the world's least developed countries.
So I lay the framework out for what we are facing in the country of Haiti and what President Preval has to deal with. You have a wonderful poster that indicates how high food is going. And so even now, where we used to be a high food donor country, but look what countries are having to pay for corn now, for soybeans, for wheat, and for rice. What a dilemma. And then, add insult to injure, if you would, as President Preval has indicated, infrastructure is needed and work is needed.
All of us were moved by the mother who stood up, and didn't look 48 years old, and according to your numbers, she has only 8 more years to live. She had 10 children. In cultures like that, they are very dependent on families. Children then go out to work and give back to families, and parents, because they age quickly, I guess, can retire back or can sit back with the hope of their children supporting them. What did she say? She managed to send her children to school, and the two that are now out and ready, no work. No work.
The food fight, the food riot, as the President indicated, or as we saw in
the news, was really because people had no money and no work to buy food. And so people were rioting because of that. President Preval wants us to help. What is this administration doing? Not releasing money the way it should; fighting against TPS, which really makes a difference. Temporary protective status allows people to stay and work, Haitians who have suffered this unequal wet foot-dry foot scenario between our friends from Cuba, and they are our friends. It wasn't a law that they wrote. But it was written, and I must say this, all of our Cuban representatives that are here in the United States Congress have supported equalizing the Haitian disparity issue. We just can't get it passed; which is to say I have an immigration bill that would create parity. If you were Haiti, because of the political crisis, you get your foot on our soil, you too can say.
But putting that aside, we don't have that. But TPS, the President begged us, President Preval. That would help the food crisis. Why? Because it would allow people who are here, sending back remittances, what, a fourth of their economy, to at least be able to send back to momma, grandma, somebody, so they can eke out a survival.
So to the Congresswoman, so he asked us for infrastructure, clean- running water that helps you be able to at least cook decent food, creation of jobs, and if you were to put money in for infrastructure, people could work. Even though these prices are outrageous, they could at least minimally begin to bring food in.
One of our colleagues said something that we heard, and that was the dumbing down of the rice industry, or dumbing down the traditional foods. President Preval said he would like to get Haitians back to traditional food, not because he wants to keep them from buying from us but because what we did is when rice was cheap, we dumbed them down from raising rice, meaning, Oh, I don't have to worry about raising rice. Let me raise something else. I don't know what the decision was because I am going to get what he called ``Miami rice.'' Look what happened. They stopped growing. I assume Miami rice has gotten way, way, way expensive. They are not growing the traditional foods. And look where we are.
So, Congresswoman, I want to thank you for raising or giving us the opportunity. I am delighted to be your coleader and cosponsor because out of these discussions I hope it comes the finger on the phone, the finger on the e-mail, Haitians around the country pressing their phone buttons and calling Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to join us in our fight for the TPS.
We know a number of our colleagues have been working on this issue, from Congressman Hastings, myself, you, Congressman Kendrick Meek from Florida, Congresswoman Corrine Brown. I may have left off someone. There's a number of people that understand the realities of that. So press your button wherever you are, get your e-mail out. We have to get relief with a temporary reprieve on TPS.
The second thing is that the administration needs to make an immediate commitment for food relief and the releasing of dollars for Haiti, a country whose singular--who could have only one reason for us helping them is the blood they shed from our Freedom Fight, for our Revolution, the blood they shed when they stood alongside of us in the Revolutionary War. No one can take that away from them in terms of relationship with the United States.
So I want to join you, and as I close yield to the gentlelady, just engage her in a question, because I would like to ask a question. I would commit our colleagues as well to H. Con. Res. 344. You are an original cosponsor. It is to say in any food aid, we need to prioritize children. Certainly I believe we can add pregnant women and mothers, nursing mothers, a vulnerable population. I think that would be an excellent addition. But I do think what happens to our children dictates what happens to the future of the country because if you have stunted children with inability to learn, what do you have in the future.
I would ask the gentlelady, and so I hope people will come on the bill H. Con. Res. 344. I hope we can mark it up soon, get it to the floor of the House, and maybe expand on some aspects of it.
I rise tonight, together with my colleagues Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, as well as the House Hunger Caucus, to address a grave and growing humanitarian crisis. With rising food prices threatening the health of millions of people throughout the world, it is vital that we look for both short-term responses to the crisis and long-term solutions to ongoing food instability.
As my colleagues are aware, according to the United Nations, over 850,000,000 people in the world are chronically or acutely malnourished, and over 300,000,000 of these are children. The statistics are both shocking and tragic: Malnutrition caused by chronic hunger leads to the death of an estimated 5,600,000 children under 5 years old; according to UNICEF, an estimated 146,000,000 children, or roughly one in every four children under 5 years old, are underweight; according to a study conducted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 45 percent of children who died after contracting measles were malnourished, as were 60 percent of children who died after contracting severe diarrhea; an estimated 168,000,000 children under age five in developing countries face potential growth retardation, also known as stunting, as a result of chronic hunger and undernutrition; approximately 42 percent of children under 5 years old are stunted in the world's least developed countries.
Rising food prices have precipitated a crisis situation. On March 20th of this year, the U.N. World Food Program made an urgent appeal to the United States and other food aid donors for an additional $500 million to fill a funding gap caused by rising food and fuel prices. Since then, this gap has expanded, and is now an estimated $755 million. As food prices rise, children are the first to suffer.
Earlier this month, with the support of 46 of my colleagues, I introduced H. Con. Res. 344. This resolution recognizes that we face a global food crisis, and that children will be disproportionately affected by rising food prices. The bill states that:
(1) it is the sense of Congress that--
(A) in emergency situations, children have different needs
than those of adults, and nutritional deficiencies
disproportionately affect children; and
(B) in the context of the current global food crisis, the
nutritional needs of children must be a humanitarian
priority; and
(2) Congress--
(A) recognizes that we are facing a global food crisis
caused by, among other things, rising fuel prices, increased
diversion of land to biofuel production, drought, and
increases in population;
(B) recognizes that lack of adequate nutrition is
particularly damaging to children, as it stunts their growth,
leaves them more vulnerable to numerous diseases, and hunger
affects children's ability to learn; and
(C) calls for a world forum to be held, on the issue of
rising food prices and international response, and for the
United States to play an active role in alleviating the
crisis.
I urge all my colleagues to join me in cosponsoring this important legislation.
This issue has drawn the attention of the Congressional Children's Caucus, which I chair, because hunger and malnutrition have a particularly devastating effect on children. On May 8th together with Global Health Caucus Co-Chair Betty McCollum and Donald Payne, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, I hosted a briefing on the global food crisis and its impact on the world's children. Members, staff, and the public heard from expert panelists from UNICEF, WFP, World Vision, Save the Children, Christian Children's Fund, and the Congressional Hunger Center, as well as Danny Glover, actor, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the TransAfrica Forum.
Lack of adequate nutrition stunts children's growth, leaves them more vulnerable to numerous diseases, and affects their ability to learn. Even temporary deprivation of essential nutrients can have a lasting impact on children's physical growth and intellectual potential, and, under current conditions, more and more children face the prospect of growing up malnourished.
As a result of rising food prices, families throughout the world, particularly in developing nations but also here, in the United States, are increasingly facing a decision between quantity and quality when buying food. With incomes stretched thinner by the day, many families must either buy significantly smaller quantities of food, or purchase less nutritious food. In times of food crisis, families face cuts in expensive foods, such as meat, fruit, and vegetables. The loss of these nutritious foods, in favor of cheaper staples such as rice and maize, is extremely detrimental to children's development, putting them at greater risk of disease or stunted growth. The full extent of the consequences of deprivation of vital nutrients during essential stages of growth is not known. However, it is clear that once children's growth is stunted by malnutrition, they
do not catch up to their peers. The effects will be lifelong.
We now are facing a crisis of epic proportions. The World Food Programme, which fed over 19 million children in schools last year, finds its budget stretched to the limit, and now needs an estimated $755 million to cover the increased cost of food and fuel. To cite one example, WFP's Kenya programme faces having to cut food to 550,000 children in schools this year. And this is just one example, in one country.
Rising food prices have caused riots in nations including Haiti, Bangladesh, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mozambique, and Senegal. In April, a week of unrest in Haiti began with violence in Les Cayes and spread to Port-au-Prince and other cities, in which at least six people were killed. Though the violence has ended, slum leaders in a nation where many people live on less than $2 a day have expressed their willingness to take to the streets if the crisis is not alleviated. Families are particularly affected. One woman, Jacqueline Emile, stated, ``I have 10 children. I cannot send them to school and I cannot feed them because I am not working. I would like the government to help me.'' A school in Port-au-Prince, the Saint Vincent de Paul primary school, which provides lunches of beans and rice supplemented with vitamins, reports that it can now can only feed 1,300 of its 2,100 students.
The crisis is also deeply felt across much of Africa. According to the NGO Action Against Hunger, nearly 20 percent of children tested in Monrovia, Liberia were suffering from acute malnutrition. Brenda Kerubo, a housewife in Kisumu, Kenya, spoke of the need to cut back family meals, stating, ``the best thing to do for my family is to reduce meals taken in a day. I may give them a cup of tea with a piece of pancake for breakfast and two cups of porridge for lunch and then I cook beans and maize for supper. We hope prices will soon come down.'' Her family, like so many others, is substituting cheap starches for more nutritious (and more expensive) meat, fruits, and vegetables.
The scope of this crisis spans the globe. In the wake of the devastating cyclone in Myanmar, children face risks from lack of clean water and poor sanitation, as well as inadequate nutrition. Under these conditions, children are increasingly susceptible to diarrhea, as well as mosquito borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. Women and children, who make up more than 60 per cent of Myanmar's population, and are likely to be gravely affected. Food aid to the children caught up in the midst of this terrifying situation must be a priority.
According to the United Nations, the cyclone in Myanmar has damaged that nation's fragile ecosystem, with far-reaching effects on food production. Myanmar is currently a rice exporting nation, and farmers in the devastated Irrawaddy Delta region produce two-thirds of the nation's rice supply. The U.N. has warned that if farmers in the cyclone-affected areas do not receive rice seed by June, Burma's rice harvest will fail.
Another nation suffering is Cambodia. In the Sun Sun primary school, for example, teacher Taoch Champa says that ``Most students come to school for the breakfast,'' and principle Yim Soeurn adds that ``Students brought their brothers and sisters, 2, 3, and 4 years old'' for the WFP-provided free breakfast. Teachers also note that providing this free meal has vastly increased attendance, particularly by girls, and they fear that if the program ended, ``poor students would not come to school.'' However, 1,343 schools across Cambodia are within 1 month of running out of rice stocks, and soaring food prices have placed WFP's future activity in the country in severe doubt.
According to comments made by Pakistani officials in recent days, that nation's production of wheat is expected to fall short of needs by a million tons. Authorities have issued warnings that people hoarding wheat will have their stocks confiscated if they refuse to sell it to government agencies.
The United Nations has made ending global poverty a long term goal, included in the Millennium Development Goals. In addition, the U.N. has recognized the scope of the current food crisis, and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has proposed a task force, to be composed of the heads of United Nations agencies and the World Bank, to address the problem caused by soaring food prices. Ban Ki-Moon has also made closing the WFP funding gap a priority.
Likewise, we are gathered here today in recognition of the looming crisis. Tackling worldwide hunger is a moral imperative which threatens the political and economic stability of a multitude of developing nations. The dramatic increase in food prices will continue to have a destabilizing affect in already unstable regions of the world where so many young lives are already vulnerable to ongoing conflicts and political turmoil.
But I want to yield to the gentlelady and ask her and pose this question to her, and that is what have you seen, living in your great congressional district, listening to Haitians firsthand, have been the results of the unequal treatment of Haitians and Haiti? What are the results that are here in the United States, what do you see in your own constituents, what kind of questions are they asking the United States Congress on why we have not acted, and what does that say about America?
If the gentlewoman would yield for just a moment, on that very note, this is the People's House, and what I would like to encourage right now on the floor of the House is let us call for Haitian-Americans who are here in the United States to come to Washington. Some are as close as your congressional district.
Let us collectively merge our bills, or maybe reintroduce all of our bills or portions of our bills that we have and make that push, I would never use the term ultimatum, but make the urgent push that we need to move forward on hearings dealing with TPS.
That is the first step of moving toward a markup of some component thereof of a TPS. Temporary. It could be a TPS for a year. That is what we did with El Salvador, and then it was renewed. We did it with Liberia, that was deferred, DED, I believe. So we have had these moments when there is a crisis. There is clearly a crisis in Haiti. And I would like to join with the gentlewoman to organize that and call that session in and make the point that we need to move on that issue as quickly as possible.