America’s Hunger Crisis to be Focus of Rules Committee Hearing

WASHINGTON – The House Rules Committee will take up the issue of food insecurity next week with the first of an anticipated series of hearings on what Committee Chair James McGovern is calling “the hunger crisis in this country.”

The first hearing, called Ending Hunger in America: Challenges, Opportunities, and Building the Political Will to Succeed, will be held on Wednesday, April 28 at 12 p.m.

According to the committee, it will highlight the reality of food insecurity and examine steps Congress and the Biden administration could take to combat it.

McGovern recently asked Americans to share their experiences, research and possible solutions with the committee, and he is also calling for a substantive, policy-focused White House conference on hunger to create a roadmap for ending hunger by 2030.

“As we begin to turn the page on the coronavirus pandemic, we need to not just build back better, we must finally build back hunger free,” McGovern said in a written statement. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment that will require the full weight of the federal government. That’s why I’ve called on the Biden administration to hold a White House hunger conference and why I will be using the Rules Committee to examine what Congress can do. 

“Unless we act and act boldly, this epidemic in food insecurity will persist long after the coronavirus has passed. We must seize this opportunity to end the hunger crisis once and for all,” he said.

Co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, McGovern authored legislation which created the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program. 

Now in its third decade, McGovern-Dole aims to provide at least one nutritious meal a day to some of the world’s most vulnerable children in a school setting. It has reduced the incidence of hunger among school-age children, increased school enrollments and attendance, and increased the support of families and communities for education. 

McGovern  also founded the bipartisan Food is Medicine working group in Congress to highlight how critical healthy meals are for American families.

The hearing will be streamed live on rules.house.gov via Cisco Webex