Subject: Appropriations Update
From: "Rick Leach" <[email-masked]>
To: "Allison Sapp " <[email-masked]>,Allyson Alvaré <[email-masked]>, "Amanda Chowning" <[email-masked]>, "Bonnie Raquet" <[email-masked]>, "Carl W. Stern" <[email-masked]>, "Dan Glickman" <[email-masked]>, "Danley Laurenceau" <[email-masked]>, "Darlene Shively" <[email-masked]>, "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Jasmine Battle" <[email-masked]>, "Jo Ann Emerson" <[email-masked]>, "Jonathan Blum" <[email-masked]>, "Katie Dodge" <[email-masked]>, "Larry Darrow" <
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2015 14:21:45 +0000

Dear Members of the Board,
Below and attached is an update on the current status of congressional appropriations for global hunger programs.

WFP USA Appropriations Updates

Congress provided historically high levels of funding for food aid programs in FY 15.  WFP USA's goal for FY16 appropriations is to preserve as much as possible these high funding levels at a time when the Congressional majority is seeking to cut overall federal spending.  We faced some significant obstacles in achieving this goal.  Some of the FY15 food aid increases were the result of one-time special allocations such as the FY15 Ebola Supplemental and the release of funds from the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust that had no realistic chance of being repeated in FY16.  The president's FY16 request for food assistance made sizeable cuts - relative to FY15 - to the Food for Peace (FfP) program ($66 million) and to the International Disaster Assistance (IDA) program ($154.4 million).

Despite these obstacles, we have had significant successes in the past few weeks in achieving our appropriations objectives.  The House Appropriations Committee restored $17 million to FfP and all of the proposed cuts to IDA.  The House level funded the McGovern Dole program, but did not fund the president's $20 million request for Local and Regional Purchase (LRP). Before the House Appropriations Committee mark-up of the Ag bill, WFP USA staff met with the several offices to ask them to make positive remarks about Food for Peace and to request that Chairman Aderholt (R-AL) work with them to restore the funding in conference.  Ranking Members Lowey (D-NY), Farr (D-CA) and McCollum (D-MN) all made references to the shortfall in Title II.

Before the Senate Appropriations Committee mark up, WFP USA had several meetings with staff to address the president's proposed cuts and the House's inaction on LRP.  We also met with Senator Merkley, ranking minority member on the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Sub-committee. The Committee restored the president's proposed $66 million cut to FfP and the proposed $154 million cut to IDA.  They also increased McGovern Dole by $10 million above the president's request. The $10 million is to be used for local or regional purchase, thus achieving WFP USA's objective of linking LRP to McGovern Dole.  The Senate also included report language asking USAID to report on how they are using the increased 202(e) flexibility authorized in the 2014 Farm Bill.  Sen. Merkley also introduced an amendment to add an extra $60 million to food aid accounts that narrowly failed but lays down a marker for possible increases in both FfP and LRP if a deal is eventually reached that raises overall FY16 Budget ceilings.

The result is that we are in a very good position on FY16 food assistance levels at this stage of the appropriations process, with WFP USA advocacy work playing a central role in each of the recent Congressional committee decisions to plus up various food aid accounts.  WFP USA will continue to engage actively with our friends on Capitol Hill to ensure a favorable outcome on food aid funding in the final FY16 budget outcome which may not come before the end of the year.

Budget Chart

ACCOUNT                                                                                                                 ($ in 1,000)

FY '15
Enacted

FY '16
Pres. Req.

FY '16
House Appropriations Cmt.

FY '16
Senate
Appropriations Cmt.

Ag Approps

Food for Peace

$                  1,466,000

$                  1,400,000

$                  1,417,000

$                  1,466,000

McGovern Dole

$                     191,626

$                     191,626

$                     191,626

$                   201,626*

Local and Reg. Purchase

$                                  -

$                       20,000

$                                  -

$                                -*

SFOPS Approps

Intl. Disaster Asst. Base

$                     560,000

$                     931,000

$                  1,085,000

$                     560,000

IDA/OCO

$                  1,335,000

$                     810,000

$                     810,000

$                  1,037,000

Emergency Spending

$                     298,000

IDA Total:

$                  1,895,000

$                  1,741,000

$                  1,895,000

$                  1,895,000

IDA Ebola Supplemental

$                  1,436,273

n/a

n/a

 n/a

Feed the Future

$                  1,000,600

$                     900,300

$                  1,000,600

$                  1,000,600

Nutrition

$                     115,000

$                     101,000

$                     115,000

$                     115,000

*No funds were included in the stand-alone Local and Regional Purchase account, but $10 million was included in the McGovern Dole program to be used for Local and Regional Purchase activities.

The achievements described above is a testament to our strong policy team - under the leadership of Allan Jury and with the deep expertise of Charles Dujon and Galen Fountain (who have a combined 50 years of experience working on the appropriations subcommittees).  Thank you very much for your continued support and commitment to our mission of ending hunger.

All the Best,
Rick

Richard Leach
President & CEO

World Food Program USA
1725 Eye Street NW, Suite 510
Washington, DC 20006
T 202.627.3737
F 202.530.1698
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>