State Department to Retain Key Food Program in Snub to Congress

The State Department will retain permanent oversight of the government’s largest overseas food aid program, rejecting calls from some members of Congress to transfer control of the scheme in the wake of the United States Agency of International Development being shut down.

The government-sponsored Food for Peace Title II foreign aid program, which represents the majority of cargo orders for some bulk and containership operators, will remain under State Department control instead of moving under the purview of another cabinet agency.

A White House official told Bloomberg Government the program “will remain at State,” and not be moved under the Department of Agriculture’s control.

Details of the program’s future follow concerns raised by some shipping industry representatives and members of Congress about the impact of uncertainty over Food For Peace on the US-flag fleet. US shipping companies say the program is crucial to the future of American ocean-going cargo.

Earlier this year, congressional Republicans wrote letters to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking him to transfer administrative responsibilities for Food for Peace to the USDA. Shipping and agricultural groups also advocated legislation to require such a move (S. 525, H.R. 1207).

The program sends produce supplied by American farmers to countries in need, regularly delivering hundreds of thousands of tons of wheat, peas, and packaged goods by sea. Laws mandate that the Pentagon ship all of its cargo—and that civilian agencies like USAID ship half their cargo orders—on US-flagged vessels.

Following the Trump administration’s move to abolish USAID, Rubio on July 1 said the agency would no longer distribute foreign aid and that future assistance would be limited. At the time he said responsibilities for Title II of Food for Peace would be transferred to State.

In response to program uncertainty, congressional Republicans, including Sen. Jerry Moran (Kan.) and Rep. Tracey Mann (Kan.), introduced legislation in the House and Senate that would move oversight for all Food for Peace orders to the Department of Agriculture, which runs smaller food aid programs.

Appropriators considered versions of the measures in Agriculture funding bills, but they were ultimately omitted from texts now awaiting votes in both chambers. Senate lawmakers commissioned a study to examine the cost of transferring the Food and Peace program to USDA, while still including $1.5 billion for Food for Peace Title II.

Shipping industry representatives previously warned that uncertainty over the food aid program’s future would jeopardize jobs and cripple military sealift capabilities. Three food-aid shipping lobbyists, speaking with Bloomberg Government under the condition of anonymity because of fears of Trump administration rebuke, said the lack of clarity was a problem for US cargo vessel operators, which must plan years in advance.

“If the cargo isn’t there, you can’t sustain a US-flag vessel,” Torben Svenningsen, chief commercial officer of Norfolk, Va.-based Maersk Line, Ltd., told Bloomberg Government. “If food aid isn’t there in some form in the future, there’s no possible way that you can grow the future fleet.”