The Food for Peace program, created during the Cold War to alleviate hunger overseas, would see $1.7 billion in funding in the new fiscal year, a Senate Appropriations subcommittee decided on Tuesday, ignoring a White House proposal to mothball the program. The White House proposed in February to put a State Department disaster-assistance office in charge of emergency food aid with a smaller budget for hunger relief.
The Appropriations subcommittee that oversees USDA, FDA and related agencies approved a $145-billion spending bill for fiscal 2019. The $1.7 billion for Food for Peace is a slight increase from this year’s $1.6 billion. The panel also approved $210 million for the McGovern-Dole international school food program. The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote on the USDA-FDA bill on Thursday.
A week ago, the House Appropriations Committee approved its $145-billion version of the USDA-FDA bill, with $1.5 billion for Food for Peace and $207 million for McGovern-Dole.
The United States is the world’s largest food aid donor and the only major country to provide the aid through delivery of domestically grown food. The White House says food aid could be delivered sooner and at much lower cost if it was purchased from countries near hunger zones.