Milling & Baking News - July 21, 2015 - 29

Congressmen seeking answers in
in-kind food aid discussions
WASHINGTON - Representative K.
Michael Conaway of Texas, chairman
of the House Committee on Agriculture, and Representative David Rouzer of North Carolina, chairman of
the Subcommittee on Livestock and
Foreign Agriculture, on July 7 sent
letters to the Secretary of Agriculture
and the administrators of the U.S.
Agency for International Development and the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) requesting answers to a May 15 article in American
Shipper that suggested the agencies
were conducting behind-closed-door
negotiations "that would have dire
consequences for the delivery of U.S.
in-kind food aid."
The American Shipper article said
the negotiations revolved around a
proposed tradeoff involving an increase in the annual stipend paid
to ship owners under the Maritime
Security Program to $5 million per
ship from the current $3.1 million in
exchange for support for a USAID
proposal to earmark 45% of its international food aid funding under
P.L.480 Title II for local and regional
purchase. Currently, no Title II funding was available for regional and
local purchase, and an $80-millionper-year local and regional purchase
program authorized under the 2014
farm act went unfunded in fiscal
years 2014 and 2015.
The M.R.P. stipends are awarded to
60 U.S.-flag ships considered militarily
useful in the event of war or national
emergency. Owners of those ships
agree to make them available to the
military should they be needed. Appropriations for the M.R.P. in the current fiscal year totaled $186 million. A
hike in the stipend to $5 million per
vessel would require a $114 million increase in overall funding to $300 million a year.
The funding required to raise the
per-ship stipend would come from
food aid program funding, according
to the American Shipper article.
Mr. Conaway and Mr. Rouzer said
in their letters, "This appears to be
another attempt on the part of USAID
to shift from U.S. in-kind commodity-based food aid to cash vouchers
... however, cash-based assistance is
highly vulnerable to fraud, waste and
abuse."
The congressmen also pointed to
the overall reduction in shipments
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from the United States that may result
from a shift to cash-based food aid
from in-kind assistance, which would
adversely affect the shipping industry
and even lead to some U.S.-flag vessels
being scrapped.
The congressmen requested the

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agencies produce "all documents
and communications referring or
relating to draft legislation or any
other proposal that would amend or
change the M.S.P. or amounts allocated for USAID to spend on cashbased assistance" for the time period Jan. 2, 2010, to the present. They
asked for responses to be sent to the
agriculture committee no later than
July 21, 2015. MBN

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