Soft Power?

The Bush administration is fighting congressional efforts to slash the amount of emergency food aid the United States provides around the world, saying the cuts could hurt as many as 8 million people in dire need. Members of Congress argue that the reductions in aid, which are included in both the House-passed and Senate-passed versions of a new five-year farm bill, are necessary to ensure there are enough dollars for longer-term projects that they say are equally, if not more, important because they can prevent drought, famine and other catastrophes in developing countries…. As it has in previous years, Congress has allocated $1.2 billion for the “Food for Peace” program through spending legislation that provides the two types of aid. Congress in the past has set aside $850 million for emergency aid and $350 million for non-emergency aid, but has allowed the administration to transfer cash between the accounts. The administration frequently has used that waiver authority to move money from the non-emergency category to the emergency category to respond to urgent crises like the Indian Ocean tsunami, and it wants to keep such authority. However, the farm legislation headed to conference negotiations between the two chambers would eliminate that authority…