der conflict is not the only dispute over land in Africa. If we don't devise a workable strategy to settle such disputes peacefully, it will not be the only war we will see on the continent. I now look forward to any further comment from the resolution's authors who have spent time and effort on this issue and in this region. Thank you.

Mr. BEREUTER. Thank you, Mr. Royce.

Chairman Gilman indicates that his views are that the current armed conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia is a great tragedy. These are two nations that many of us saw as the leading lights of Africa. Both nations have shown a commitment to economic reform and respect for human rights and democracy. He recognizes that the Committee has met with both Prime Minister Meles of Ethiopia and President Isaias of Eritrea. Both these men are impressive leaders who have had a positive vision for taking their nations into the 21st century.

Chairman Gilman indicates that it is time to show the courage to end this senseless conflict. We need to convey that message to them. It is their responsibility to find a workable lasting solution. If they fail, history will judge them harshly. This is a senseless war. As the Chairman indicates, both nations and both leaders should be ashamed. The people of Ethiopia and Eritrea deserve better. They deserve peace.

So I thank the gentleman from California, Mr. Campbell, and other sponsors of this resolution, as does Chairman Gilman, for bringing this matter before the Committee.

Are there other Members seeking recognition or seeking to offer amendments? Seeing none, if not, the question is on agreeing to the Subcommittee recommendation. As many as are in favor of the amendment say aye.

As many as are opposed, say no.

The amendment is agreed to.

The gentleman from California, Mr. Campbell, is recognized to offer a motion.

Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. Chairman, I move that the chairman be requested to seek consideration of the pending resolution as amended on the suspension calendar.

Mr. BEREUTER. The question is on the motion of the gentleman from California. As many as are in favor will say aye.

As many as are opposed will say no.

The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it and the motion is agreed to. Further proceedings on the measure are postponed.

We will now consider H.R. 4283 to support sustainable and broad-based agricultural and rural development in sub-Saharan Africa and for other purposes. This bill was introduced yesterday and referred to the Committee and the Committee on Agriculture, but is based on a bill that has been before the Committee for some time, H.R. 3636.

The Chair lays before the Committee the bill. The clerk will report the title of the bill.

Ms. BLOOMER. "H.R. 4283, a bill to support sustainable and broad-based agricultural and rural development in sub-Saharan Africa and for other purposes."

Mr. BEREUTER. Without objection, the first reading of the bill is dispensed with. The clerk will read the bill for amendment.

Ms. BLOOMER. "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled"

Mr. BEREUTER. Without objection, the bill is considered as having been read and is open to amendment at any point.

[H.R. 4283 appears in the appendix.]

Mr. BEREUTER. I will recognize myself to introduce the bill. First of all, I want to thank the distinguished gentleman from New York, Chairman Gilman, for expeditiously holding this markup today on the Africa Seeds of Hope Act and for his cosponsorship of this legislation. I also would like to thank the distinguished gentleman from California, chairman of the Africa Subcommittee for his assistance and encouragement on the process.

On April 1, the Ranking Member of the House International Relations Committee, Mr. Hamilton, and I introduced the legislation. It focused on improving agricultural efficiency in Africa. That legislation, H.R. 3636, the Africa Seeds of Hope Act, quickly garnered 85 bipartisan cosponsors and the support of 100 national organizations and an additional 100 state and international organizations led by Bread for the World.

Today we are marking up a successor and substantially similar bill, H.R. 4283, with the same name, the Africa Seeds of Hope Act. The major difference between the original bill and the bill we are marking up today is that CBO now estimates a $76 million cost for the Bill Emerson Humanitarian International Food Security Trust because of some changes we have made to the worldwide food assistance portion of the bill. This is down from an original cost estimate of approximately $450 million. That relates to the suspension calendar requirements, among other things.

In addition, we have incorporated some minor improvements in title I that were incorporated by the Senate in the companion bill introduced by Senators DeWine and Sarbanes. A recent article in the Washington Post entitled "Africa's Agricultural Rebirth" quoted a vice minister of agriculture from Ethiopia as saying, "We can not detach economic development from food self-sufficiency." That simple statement is the essence of the Africa Seeds of Hope Act.

Unfortunately, there are some on Capitol Hill who believe trade liberalization alone can remedy all of Africa's woes, or at least that seems to be their position. And equally wrong hitted I might say are those views in the non-governmental organization community that believe that trade liberalization will only hurt Africa's poor. We have some people in the Congress who have that same view. The Africa Seeds of Hope Act bridges these disparate and unnecessarily conflicting ideologies with a reconciling view. That view is that liberalized trade plus targeted foreign assistance toward Africa's small farmers can best help sub-Saharan Africa prosper.

Several months ago, the House of Representatives passed, with this Member's enthusiastic support, the Africa Trade Growth and Opportunities Act, and took the very important step toward greater trade with a continent in desperate need of private sector-led economic growth. By focusing on sustainable development, research, real finance and food security, our legislation is directly aimed at

helping the 76 percent of the sub-Saharan African people who are small farmers. Improving the efficiency of these farmers is crucial to ensuring that our overall trade strategy is successful.

As a long-time supporter of the aid to Africa through the Development Fund for Africa, and you may remember Mr. Wolpe and Mr. Hamilton, Members on our side of the aisle were very much involved in that, and other mechanisms, I believe this legislation in conjunction with our new trade initiatives, help coordinate and focus Americans' resources on both trade and aid in Africa. If trade is to prosper in sub-Saharan Africa, we need to better direct our scarce aid resources so that they stimulate private sector investment or help ease the suffering in those places either overlooked by the private sector or suffering from disasters.

Our legislation attempts to refine our assistance programs for sub-Saharan Africa and ensure that agriculture and rural development are not neglected. For example, we believe that the microenterprise program and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation are two excellent tools to help remedy rural finance and investment shortcomings. Moreover, we believe our international agricultural research programs can be better coordinated with our domestic agriculture research to benefit farmers in Africa as well as the United States. I see direct evidence of that in my own state. Our food assistance programs need to be refocused on long-term development assistance and not be evaluated on the basis of shortterm or immediate results that are often anathema to their original purpose.

Let me repeat that for cost and jurisdictional reasons, and to incorporate the Senate's improvements to the underlying legislation, we are marking up today a newly introduced bill, H.R. 4283, which includes the Senate's changes. Our version also incorporates additional changes proposed by the USDA and a cap on the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust. That will bring the overall cost of this legislation down to $76 million over 4 years.

This legislation establishes a Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust in honor of the late congressman from Missouri. He of course was a leader, along with our colleague Mickey Leyland, to support U.S. food assistance programs. This legislation authorizes $76 million so that the USDA has one more tool to fight malnutrition and food insecurity overseas. This humanitarian trust enables the USDA to purchase commodities when prices are low and to store them for times when prices are high. These results have been good in the past, we have had trials. Results under this arrangement would be that our food assistance dollars will go further. I only wish this excellent tool was available right now to deal with the famine in Sudan and Indonesia. I urge Members to support the Africa Seeds of Hope Act.

I am pleased now to yield to the distinguished Ranking Member, the gentleman from Indiana, Mr. Hamilton.

Mr. HAMILTON. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank Chairman Gilman for bringing H.R. 4283 before the Committee. I particularly want to express my appreciation to the gentleman from Nebraska, Mr. Bereuter, for his extraordinary leadership on this bill and his willingness to work cooperatively with the

minority and also the various voluntary groups. I am deeply grateful to him for his role.

As he has said, we have before the Committee today a new version. The major change in this new version relates to the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust Act, which I will mention in just a moment. I think this bill has over 60 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle. We have had very strong input and good leadership from several private voluntary groups. I am very much appreciative of their efforts.

This bill seeks to promote sustainable agricultural development and food security in Africa. It does that in four ways. First, it promotes long-term economic development by strengthening agricultural and rural markets. It requires the development of a microenterprise strategy for Africa, and provides support for producerowned marketing associations. It directs our Department of Agriculture to ensure that international and U.S. agricultural research is coordinated to respond to the needs of the African farmer and supports their self reliance.

Second, the bill maximizes the efficiency of current aid programs. Rather than seeking more aid, it bolsters the existing Africa Food Security Initiative and directs U.S. agencies to target their resources and programs to those who need it most, women, children, and the poor.

Third, the bill requires that U.S. aid programs be developed and conducted in consultation with the African people and with nongovernmental organizations that have expertise in addressing the needs of the poor, small-scale farmers, and rural workers.

Fourth, the bill improves the current food security commodity reserve by establishing the Bill Emerson Trust. This increases the U.S. Government's ability in the long term to hold agricultural commodities and assets and to respond to urgent humanitarian crises. The problem with the reserve today is the manner in which it is replenished. When the reserve releases commodities today, the Commodity Credit Corporation, which administers the reserve, is reimbursed for the value of commodities from P.L. 480 food assistance program funds, but these funds can not be used to replenish the reserve. This bill sets up a new trust that can be replenished. It limits the replenishment authority to $20 million for the Fiscal Years 2000 through 2003. That allows the Department of Agriculture to purchase commodities on the market when prices are low, such as this year. But it will stay within reasonable budgetary constraints.

The benefits of this change, I think, are, first, that the trust now sets up an orderly way to respond to humanitarian crises without disrupting markets. Second, the trust can be operated in a business-like manner because commodities can be purchased in advance at reasonable prices.

This is a good bill. It is an important bill. I urge my colleagues to support it.

Chairman GILMAN. [presiding] Thank you, Mr. Hamilton.

This Africa Seeds of Hope legislation was first introduced as H.R. 3636 by our vice chairman, Mr. Bereuter and our Ranking Democratic Member, Mr. Hamilton. Because of the extensive changes made to the bill, we have reintroduced it just last night. I was

pleased to become an original cosponsor of the new measure. Nothing could underscore the need for this legislation better than the recent news from Sudan. I don't know if many of you have been able to hear of our colleague Mr. Hall's recent visit to the faminestricken area there. He has provided detailed accounts of the suffering there and the tragedy of what happens when an African agricultural system breaks down, leaving millions hungry.

Earlier this year, we considered the Africa trade bill. That bill set forth a new path for Africa based on private sector growth and exports to make certain there be jobs for the growing population. The measure before us should be seen as a companion to the trade bill, recalling that many people in Africa still need the basics, especially food, to be able to survive. The bill highlights the importance of the agricultural sector in Africa and the need to keep that sector as a priority in our development and our other assistance programs.

This bill basically accomplishes three objectives. First, it calls on AID and other Government agencies to keep the development of the African agricultural sector uppermost in our efforts to ensure people do not go without food. We back the Africa Food Security Initiative and we call attention to the role of microenterprise programs.

Second, we continue to emphasize non-emergency food assistance programs. I was concerned earlier this year when I heard from Cardinal O'Connor that AID may end these programs to support programs where people can move from assistance to their own food supplies. In general, I support that goal, but the policy can not be taken to its extremes. We heard that Mother Theresa's programs in India may be cut off due to this policy as well as other institutions serving the elderly, the sick, and the mentally incapacitated. Congress will not allow such institutions to be fully cut off.

I was pleased that AID made the commitment in writing on June 22 to be able to continue those programs. For the moment, the key groups are waiting for AID to implement those commitments. If AID does implement their letter to this Committee, and I expect that they will, then I will work with Mr. Bereuter and Mr. Hamilton to modify that section of the bill before consideration on the House floor.

Finally, this bill strengthens the food security commodity reserve, making it more flexible and replenishing its stocks. Members should note that CBO scored the original Seeds of Hope bill at a cost of over $500 million. Under the reforms made in H.R. 4283 before us, CBO will score the measure at a cost of $76 million over 5 years. This bill is a strongly bipartisan measure that will help Africa and the American farmer. I strongly support its passage. Are there any other Members seeking recognition?

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Chairman.

Chairman GILMAN. Mr. Royce.

Mr. ROYCE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to commend the gentleman from Nebraska as well as the Ranking Member and the chairman of the Committee for their work on this legislation. I fully agree with its goal of promoting agricultural development in Africa. I do want to raise a few questions though and I would welcome responses from any of my colleagues.