International Food Crisis and Haiti

Floor Speech

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First, let me thank my colleague from New York, a great American and a proud daughter of the Caribbean, for your leadership and for putting together this Special Order tonight.

And as I listen to you, I'm thinking, I hope everyone in the country is listening tonight because I get so many questions about the world food crisis, the whys, what is going on? Why, even in some of our communities, stores are stockpiling rice? And I think what you are doing tonight is allowing us to give the big picture, the explanation, talk about what is really talking place. And so thank you, Congresswoman Clarke, for your leadership and your vision and for putting this all together tonight.

Let me just say a couple of things. First of all, Congresswoman Clarke mentioned the congressional delegation. Congresswoman Kilpatrick and myself co-led it to Haiti to examine the current conditions on the ground.

Now, during our visit, we were joined by 10 members of the Congressional Black Caucus and one member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. I'd like to mention who these Members are because they reflect the broad concern, regionally, and just in terms of their deep commitment to address some of the humanitarian issues that we must address in the world. Congressman André Carson, Congresswoman, of course, Yvette Clarke, Congressman Keith Ellison, Congressman Al Green, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, Congressman Hank Johnson, Congressman Gregory Meeks, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Congresswoman Diane Watson, and Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard. We all have a longstanding interest and commitment to strengthen our ties with Haiti and the Haitian people.

Now, during this codel we met with Haitian President Rene Preval, our United States Ambassador Janet Sanderson, and representatives from humanitarian and development organizations in Haiti. Our goals were to examine the United States strategy to help alleviate the effects of the recent rise in food prices in Haiti. We were there to ensure that there is infrastructure, which we discussed with President Preval, to make sure there is adequate infrastructure in place to help distribute aid to the Haitian people, and that there is a long-term plan in place to expand that infrastructure. Also, to take steps to ensure a safe and stable and promising future for Haiti and all Haitians by providing immediate relief to help the Haitian people.

So we want many, many short-term goals to be met, but also, we want these short-term goals and initiatives to lead to a more sustainable effort to make sure that the Haitian people begin to receive our assistance with regard to the infrastructure, health care, clean water, and all of the systems that people just deserve so that they can live decent lives.

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. And Haitians are particularly affected by soaring food prices, which have risen over 40 percent globally since mid 2007. Haiti produces 50 percent of the food it needs and imports the rest.

The rising cost of living has keenly affected the people of Haiti. Forty percent of Haiti's population is only able to eat one meal a day. Eighty percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day. And the cost of staples, such as rice, beans, fruit, and condensed milk, have gone up 50 percent in the last year.

In terms of health aid organizations, they fear that the nutritional crisis will get worse in Haiti. Haiti has the highest rates in the Caribbean of HIV and AIDS. And in order to make sure that the anti-retroviral drugs are effective, good nutrition must be available. Food must be available for people to eat so that they can just take their medications, otherwise, it just won't work.

According to the World Food Program, malnutrition is particularly acute in Haiti, where the average Haitian diet contains just 1,640 calories, 460 calories short of the typical 2,100 daily requirement. Particularly, one in five children is chronically malnourished.

Now, anti-government protests and public looting in reaction to soaring food prices have really jeopardized Haiti's capacity to sustain and administer its government institutions effectively. Currently, Haiti's government is in a very precarious caretaker position, where they are unable to create and enforce new laws.

On April 12 of this year, Haitian Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis was forced out of office for failure to boost food production and lower food prices. In addition, the Haitian Parliament vetoed President Preval's recent replacement appointee for the Prime Minister position. With no head of government, Haiti is left in a very fragile state, and it's up to us to help fill the void in terms of just helping to feed the people of Haiti.

As a witness to these dire conditions in Haiti, we must take urgent steps to implement an effective strategy to help the Haitian people. Congresswoman Clarke reviewed some of the initiatives that have taken place here in terms of what we have done in the farm bill, what we are urging the President to do. Actually, he did announce we would release 200 million in emergency food aid, some of which would go to Haiti. He also called on Congress to approve the 770 million in food aid to help fight the food crisis. But we've learned now that there is $1 million that has not been released yet, which would help reduce the cost of rice for the Haitian people. And so one of the initiatives that we talked about is how we could help facilitate this $1 million so that the Haitian people will at least be able to afford to buy rice. We're working on that very diligently as I speak.

This crisis, though, let me just say, has opened the door to much needed innovation for long-term development solutions in Haiti. So as I said earlier, this crisis should be addressed with an immediate response, and it should be a strong and very aggressive and very robust response because this is a very dire situation. But we also need to make sure that we don't go backwards and that the crisis is contained, and that we move forward and look at how to help Haiti find some sustainable solutions in terms of agricultural development, the development of their infrastructure, and all of the other initiatives, debt relief, that are so desperately needed.

And so members of our delegation are working on a variety of bills which will be announced very shortly, and we're working on a variety of actions. And so I just hope that President Bush will make sure that everything is done on behalf of the people of the United States to just help Haiti live, help Haiti thrive, and help the Haitian people move on with their lives.

Thank you, Congresswoman Clarke.

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