Sheila Jackson Lee: “Thank you for your courtesies. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of topics that I choose to debate this evening, but…”

“Thank you for your courtesies. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of topics that I choose to debate this evening, but before I do that, I would like to first raise a very important concern. I will soon draft a letter that my colleagues will join in signing to the President of the United States on the extensive crisis of starvation in Somalia and South Sudan. Just recently, we met with leadership--with my colleague Karen Bass and a number of other colleagues--of South Sudan speaking about the extensive starvation in sub-Saharan Africa. I am looking forward to a response from this White House upon receipt of the letter that they will engage with the world community on providing immediate food aid and other resources to the people of sub- Saharan Africa, particularly Somalia and South Sudan. It is something that I am well aware of because my colleague, the late Mickey Leland, Congressman from the 18th Congressional District in 1989, and years before that as the co-chair of the Select Committee on Hunger, was very concerned about starvation in that very same area because of the drought and terrible climatic conditions, huge loss of life. Congressman Leland was constantly responding with his own personal sacrifice of taking food over to that area as well as seeking to encourage others in the world family, United Nations to do so.…”