mr. engel: thank you mr. speaker. i now yield two minutes to the gentleman from rhode island, a very valued member of the foreign affairs committee, mr. cicilline. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from rhode island is recognized for two minutes. mr. cicilline: i thank the gentleman for yielding and i thank chairman royce and ranking member engel, leader pelosi, and my colleague, congresswoman lee, for your strong leadership. as a long-time advocate for a strong government response to the hiv-aids public health crisis in my home state of rhode island, and now as a member of the house foreign affairs committee, i rise today to strongly support the president's emergency plan for aids relief re-authorization. this year we mark the 10th anniversary of pepfar, which is always enjoyed -- which has always enjoyed broad bipartisan support. first in 2003 there was bipartisan support for addressing this public health emergency, then in 2008 in response to some progress pepfar transitioned into a more sustainable program wi

the gentleman from new york, mr. engel, is recognized. >> thank you very much, chairman. chairman lucas and chairwoman stabenow, ranking member peterson and ranking member cochran for calling this conference me but i also like to thank leader pelosi for many as a contrary. i know members have worked very hard on these bills, and i feel privileged to be a part of this process. as all of you know the foreign affairs committee has jurisdiction over title three of the bills before us which includes international food aid and export promotion measures. i'm going to focus most of my remarks on food aid reform but also want to mention that new york is the third largest dairy state, and i'm the only new yorker on this conference. i also wanted to address several other areas of concern to the bills the drug would affect my congressional district in the state of new york, specifically a strong oppose the cuts to s.n.a.p. when so many americans are still recovering from the effects of the worst recession in generations. i urge my colleagues to reject the cuts in the house bill which

royce, and the ranking member, mr. engel. i'm grateful that they have filed a resolution to support the people of the philippines. my mission of mercy is to ask for help for the people of the philippines, and this resolution, h.res. 404, speaks to some of what we may be able to do and it also addresses our sympathy for the people of the philippines. it expresses our solidarity with the people of the philippines. it expresses our continuing support for relief and reconstruction assistance for the people of the philippines. and it goes on to commend the filipino community in the united states of america for their efforts to organize and to help with the disaster relief. the philippines are our allies. the people of the philippines have been there with us through many struggles. . they are the victims of a force of nature, but they can survive this with our help. i want people to understand that there's a special relationship between america and the people of the philippines. they were there with us during world war ii. they fou