International Food Aid Programs: Background and Issues

U.S. food aid programs provide U.S. commodities for emergency food relief and to support development projects. The U.S. government has provided food aid primarily through five program authorities: Section 416(b) of the Agricultural Act of 1949, the Food for Peace Act, the Food for Progress Act of 1985, the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, and the Local and Regional Procurement Program. These programs are administered either by the Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) or by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Average annual spending on international food aid programs over the decade FY2002-FY2011 was approximately $2.2 billion, with Food for Peace Title II activities averaging nearly $1.7 billion (or about 80%) of the annual budget. The Section 416(b) program has been inactive since FY2007. The objectives of foreign food aid include providing emergency and humanitarian assistance in response to natural or manmade disasters, and promoting agricultural development and food security. The Food for Peace Act, for example, provides for the sale or donation of U.S. agricultural commodities to support development projects and emergency food relief. The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, on the other hand, focuses on improving nutrition and education in developing countries. The 2014 farm bill reauthorized the four major international food aid programs, as well as the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, through FY2018. The bill also made some modest changes to existing U.S. food aid programs, including placing greater emphasis on improving the quality of food aid products and ensuring that sales of agricultural commodity donations do not disrupt local markets. The Administration had proposed making more sweeping reforms to both the structure and intent of U.S. food aid programs as part of its FY2014 budget request, but these proposals are still being debated as part of the annual appropriations process. The Administration's reform proposals include shifting funds from Food for Peace to three USAID accounts, eliminating the monetization procedure, providing greater flexibility to procure commodities in local and regional markets overseas, and reducing the volume of commodities subject to cargo preference legislation. USDA and USAID continue to advocate for the Administration's reform agenda, and the President has reintroduced a revised version of his reform proposal in his FY2015 budget request.