Washington, DC — After a year of intense lobbying by grassroots organizations, the House of Representatives passed the "Africa: Hunger to Harvest" resolution (HR 102) on Tuesday evening.

The legislation directs USAID to present Congress with 5-year and 10-year "strategic" plans to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa. Speaking from the floor, Congressman Donald Payne said: "We cannot, as a country, say we are for development and not deal with the issue of hunger... Nor can we effectively fight the war on terrorism and win if we do not deal with conditions of hunger and poverty."

The legislation enjoyed strong bi-partisan support. It had 154 sponsors. In his remarks from the House floor, Republican Congressman Jim Leach from Iowa declared that the United States "has the moral obligation and the resources to help improve the lives of millions of people" living in Africa.

Bread for the World, a "Christian citizens movement," spearheaded the grassroots campaign. The organization's president, David Beckman, said he is hopeful that next year's budget will show an increase in the funding of development assistance by the Bush administration. "With administration support for poverty-fighting aid, we could indeed make real progress against hunger in the world," said Beckman.

A Senate version of the bill was unanimously approved in July.