Administration seeks shift in food aid from USDA to AID

The Bush administration has proposed eliminating a $108 million domestic commodity distribution program and shifting most of the $1.6 billion international food aid budget to the Agency for International Development, while giving AID the authority to spend 25 percent of its food aid budget on purchases in other countries.

President Bush's fiscal 2007 USDA budget, released Monday, would eliminate the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which was established in 1969 and distributes food directly to low-income American women, young children and the elderly. The program operates in 32 states, and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns emphasized that it was not nationwide and that most recipients would be eligible for the food stamp program as a replacement.

On international food aid, the Bush administration proposed eliminating Title I of the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, which is administered by the Agriculture Department and cost $73 million in fiscal 2006. It would shift $80 million in budget authority to Title II of the same act, which is administered by AID. The total Title II budget would be $1.3 billion.

The proposal that AID be allowed to buy 25 percent of food aid in foreign countries reflects criticism of current U.S. food aid programs by the European Union and other countries. They say the current approach is just a way for the United States to dispose of surplus agricultural commodities and have urged the United States to switch to a cash program so foreign countries and aid groups could buy food in regions where food shortages occur.

Humanitarian, farm and maritime groups have generally opposed the purchase of food aid in other countries and have expressed fears that reorganizing AID to bring it closer to the State Department could lead to more overseas purchases.

At the U.S. Wheat Associates meeting in San Antonio this weekend, Washington State Wheat Commission CEO Thomas Mick said he feared that if African countries were given cash to buy food they would buy wheat in France instead of the United States because France is closer.

Agriculture Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services J. B. Penn said at Monday's budget briefing it was not the intention that countries experiencing famine would buy food from the European Union or Brazil, but he acknowledged that the change sought from Congress would permit them to do that.

The USDA budget overview indicates that overall foreign food assistance would decline by $102 million in outlays, but a USDA budget analyst said that number reflected an expected reduction in payments from the Maritime Administration to pay for shipments of food aid in U.S. ships. The USDA would continue to run the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program.