Senator Asks Sec. Marco Rubio About Continuing Programs To Combat Global Hunger

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At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) questioned Sec. Marco Rubio about food programs to help fight global hunger.

Transcript

00:00Senator Moran. Chairman, thank you. Secretary Rubio, welcome. Welcome back to Capitol Hill.

00:07Let me ask you to tell us, as the State Department prepares to undertake restructuring

00:17of its humanitarian aid operations, where does food assistance fit in within the department's

00:23strategic priorities and in which office will state place those programs?

00:28Well, it'll be under the new directorate that will oversee both human rights and humanitarian

00:35affairs and foreign aid. The only ones that are going to be separated from that is military sales

00:40and military financing, but the primary driver of our humanitarian assistance, food assistance,

00:45medicine will be through the new bureau that will handle that. It'll be a Senate confirmed position

00:51as well that will respond and answer to that, that they will answer to, and it will be a priority,

00:56but it will be structured in a way to deliver the most amount of money or the most amount of aid at

01:01the least amount of cost in the most effective way. Do you have a person in mind as this position is

01:07in the process of being filled? That will require Senate confirmation. I don't

01:13believe that that position has been filled yet. There's someone acting in a temporary capacity and

01:17an acting capacity at the moment, but we will have to come back to you to find a nominee that will run

01:21that. Let me highlight a couple of food programs. Food for Peace and the what we call Dole McGovern

01:30nutrition program are two long-standing initiatives with deep roots in my home state of Kansas.

01:37These programs, in my view, are critical tools in the fight against global hunger, the moral aspect of

01:42that, but also vital to Kansas farmers, to American agriculture producers who help deliver. This program

01:51started with a Kansas farmer who felt compelled to do something with excess grain piled on the ground

02:00at a time when people across the globe were still starving and hungry. I understand there were findings

02:07of mismanagement at USAID. I look forward to working with you in this subcommittee to make sure that

02:12mismanagement is something that stays out of our delivery of food aid. I did join with Senator Hoven and

02:20Senator Marshall in legislation that would transfer the administration of Food for Peace to the U.S.

02:29Department of Agriculture. I have some sense that you are supportive of that concept. I have some sense

02:36that the Secretary of Agriculture is supportive of that concept. I have some sense that the Office

02:41of Management and Budget is supportive of that concept. This is my first opportunity to have a

02:48conversation with you. Tell me how I can be helpful to you and to the department in the cause of Food

02:56for Peace and its future.

02:58Well, again, obviously there's legislation out there that's pending on it, but I would argue that

03:08it is what you have described as the new arrangement under the Department of Agriculture would generally

03:13align with the idea that we want to, because no matter what, we still have to work with them on this

03:17program. It would align towards removing one more layer of government that allow us to both identify

03:22recipients and delivery mechanisms quicker and more effectively. So generally, your perceptions are

03:27correct. We're very open to that transition being done. Obviously, whether it's done statutorily or

03:32otherwise, it's something something would be open to, because we think it has the potential to deliver

03:37assistance much quicker, much faster, much more efficiently, and perhaps to a broader set of people.

03:43Mr. Secretary, Food for Peace, the Dole McGovern. Let me ask about McGovern-Dole. Any observations in

03:51regard to that program? We haven't made any determinations, but I would imagine it would

03:55fold under, if it was under our responsibilities, it would fold under the same bureau that's handling

03:59what we call the life-saving assistance or humanitarian assistance.

04:06My take from your answer is that there is a role for food aid programs to continue to exist, to be

04:12administered. The goal is to figure out how to reduce the bureaucracy and how to deliver more aid for

04:17the same bigger bang for the buck. We're not stopping foreign aid. I mean, we're going to continue

04:22foreign aid and at levels as generous, more generous than any other country in the world than most

04:26countries in the world combined. The question is, how can we deliver it more effectively and ensure that

04:31it is aligned with our foreign policy priorities? But in the case of food aid, as an example, there's no

04:37goal to end it or to stop doing this kind of work. It is more about how can we deliver it more

04:42efficiently and effectively and quickly and in ways that are aligned with our broader foreign policy

04:48and to empower, again, I keep going back to this point because it's really important to make,

04:52empowering our regional bureaus to drive these programs, to identify chronic or critical needs,

04:58whether they're acute or chronic, and allow us to quickly operationalize it, as opposed to having a

05:03standoff bureau that views the whole entire world holistically. We are able to drive this at the local and

05:09regional level where they know what the priorities are and can drive this aid quickly. Mr. Secretary,

05:13among the many things that you've said in this hearing this afternoon, that's one that certainly

05:17caught my attention as having Merritt get the process where it's the closest to the crisis,

05:23the emergency, the facts are better known and implemented more closely to home in a foreign country.

05:31Let me highlight one more feeding program. This one's about the future. There's a program called Feed the

05:37Future in which research is done and agriculture designed to figure out how to produce more food,

05:45in other words, greater efficiency, and a food that's needed in countries that have different kinds of

05:52opportunities to feed themselves. How can we use the powerhouse of American agricultural research

05:58to find ways to better allow other countries not only receive food aid from us, but also to grow their own?

06:06I think it's, imagine if you're an ambassador in a country that has a chronic food shortage,

06:10and you're somehow able to provide them American ingenuity that allows them to produce more food

06:14at a lower cost using less land or less facility. That's an extraordinary thing to offer as part of

06:20our toolbox. But that would, that would, those are unique opportunities that probably exist in some

06:24places and not in others. And the ability to identify from the ground level, have an ambassador,

06:30an embassy or a regional bureau, identify that as both a need and an opportunity, and then us to

06:34operationalize it is exactly the kind of nimble programming that we want to be able to do.

06:39But I see great benefit in the ability of us to, and it's also by the way, the kind of foreign aid that ends.

06:46Because once they have acquired the capacity to do it, it's helped our companies to find a place where they can

06:52deploy it. It's helped them to develop independence, and it creates good faith among the nations in the

06:58future. That is part of the soft power that Senator McConnell was talking about a moment ago.

07:02Mr. Secretary, I think it's the components that I've outlined are three, three circumstances.

07:07You meet the needs of someone in a crisis today, but the long-term goal is to help people around the

07:12globe be self-sufficient, countries to care for themselves and reduce the role perhaps of the United

07:17States in that effort. I would highlight for what you just said, the program that provides the

07:22agricultural research to accomplish what you described as a positive development is a program

07:27called Food for Peace. I said that wrong. It's a program called Feed the Future. Thank you.

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