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CQ.com<http://CQ.com> - Johanns Balks on Proposed Food Aid Changes

CQ NEWS – POLICY
May 7, 2013 – 12:57 p.m.

Johanns Balks on Proposed Food Aid Changes

By Jonathan Broder, CQ Roll Call

A Republican farm state appropriator warned the Obama administration’s top aid official on Monday that he was highly skeptical that proposed changes to the way the United States provides food assistance overseas will get through Congress.

In his fiscal 2014 budget request, President Barack Obama</person/7612> is seeking to improve the speed and efficiency of the State Department’s food aid programs by buying and distributing some local or regional food to the needy, instead of requiring the government to buy only U.S. agricultural surpluses and ship them overseas on U.S. Merchant Marine ships — a process that takes more time and costs more money.

“This proposal, going as far as it does, is going to be impossible,” Mike Johanns</person/1478> of Nebraska cautioned USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah at a hearing before the Senate State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee.

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers representing farm states have expressed reservations about the food aid changes, which would reduce the amount of food purchased from U.S. farmers to 55 percent of all food aid. The administration says the changes would allow the United States to feed as many as 4 million more people for the same money.

Though some farm state lawmakers have decried the impact that the overhaul will have on American farmers, many others on Capitol Hill, including Republicans, have embraced the changes as a way to reduce government spending amid calls for belt-tightening.

Johanns, who served as Agriculture secretary during the George W. Bush administration, said that as Congress looks for more ways to reduce government spending, he was concerned that the food aid program would become “just another cash program that gets cut.” He said American farmers were proud of their role in saving lives around world.

“I’m willing to work with colleagues to come up with a idea that doesn’t cut American farmers out of the program,” Johanns said. He suggested the prepositioning of U.S.-grown food in disaster-prone countries as a possible solution.

But Shah, who was on Capitol Hill to defend the administration’s $20.4 billion request to fund USAID programs, said prepositioning as a strategy was limited by capacity and transportation options. Once again, he said using local and regional food offered the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars.

Shah also said the proposed changes to the food aid program would have little impact on American agricultural exports and the U.S. shipping business.

He said the program would reduce U.S. agricultural exports by an estimated .02 percent. He added that the changes would affect 8 to 10 U.S. Merchant Marine ships and some 300 sailors, who would be able to get other clients while receiving government assistance.

“They won’t lose their jobs,” he said.