Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy
On
The Africa Famine Relief Act Of 2003
January 16, 2003

I want to thank Senator Daschle and Representative Cummings for their leadership on the Africa Famine Relief Act.  Senator Daschle has done a good job of describing the problem and making the case why it is so important that we act now. 

Before I describe our key proposals, I want to emphasize that this is a bipartisan issue that we all care about.  Representative Wolf just returned from East Africa and has written a compelling report on his trip.  In addition, I know that Secretary Powell and USAID Administrator Natisos are working on this problem.  Mr. Natisos is in Africa today and I look forward to discussing his trip with him when he returns.

We are ready to work with anyone, anytime, anywhere:  Democrats, Republican, Independents. We don't want credit.  We want to save lives.

The Africa Famine Relief Act is an important first step.  It authorizes $900 million for emergency humanitarian assistance to provide immediate relief to Africans suffering from the effects of years of drought, war, and government mismanagement. 

This bill does more than just authorize food aid to Africa.  It also authorizes $200 million for international disaster assistance to provide aid for shelter and medicine.  The bill also authorizes $100 million for Emergency HIV/AIDS Family Survival Partnerships, a program designed to provide treatment, medical care, and support services to HIV infected parents and their children.  We have seen how the HIV/AIDS virus has magnified the food crisis.  

Perhaps most importantly, we are going to offer amendments to the appropriations bills for additional funding for food aid and HIV/AIDS.  The United States and other donors are simply not providing enough resources to deal with this enormous - and growing - crisis. 

At the same time, we can't just throw money at the problem.  We have been dealing with some of the same issues for decades and have to do a better job of getting at the root causes of these problems.  The Africa Famine Relief Act calls on the Administration to begin working with Congress on legislation that gets at the long-term problem of food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa.

I know that Senator Feingold is extremely interested in this part of the problem and we will be working with him on legislation to address it.

To sum up, we are going to attack this problem from three sides:  the Africa Famine Relief Act for immediate assistance, appropriations amendments, and additional legislation that gets at some of these long-term problems.

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