WASHINGTON, DC -- The Senate Appropriations Committee today approved an increase of $207 million in federal funding for international food relief programs to meet the dire need for humanitarian assistance around the world. U.S. Senator Herb Kohl spearheaded the effort to boost funding for the flagship Food for Peace Program from $350 million, as requested by the Administration, to $475 million as part of the emergency supplemental bill; the measure also includes $82 million to replenish the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, a food reserve which allows the U.S. to respond to unanticipated food crises in developing countries. During a Senate hearing last week, the Director of the World Food Program and two former refugees from Sudan and Somalia testified about the grave need for U.S. food aid to some of the most economically devastated countries in the world.

"I'm pleased that we could build on the President's request to fund these desperately needed humanitarian food relief programs. The assistance provided through these efforts is a lifeline to millions of people who struggle to survive," Kohl said. "Our nation has a deep history of compassion and generosity to those who are suffering, and this tradition contributes to our efforts to win the hearts and minds of people around the world."

The World Health Organization reports that 25,000 people die every day from hunger-related causes; of that 25,000 people who die, 18,000 are children. According to the World Food Program, 850 million people are hungry or malnourished around the world on any given day. That is one in six of the world's population—or more than the combined population of the U.S., Russia, Japan, Germany, Britain and France.

Kohl serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee and is chairman of its Agriculture Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over two of the three major U.S. programs for international food assistance: the McGovern-Dole Program and the Food for Peace Program.

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