Al Jazeera America: Food fight: Coast Guard bill could limit aid to hungry
“…The regulation in question is known as ‘cargo preference,’ a 60-year-old provision that says a certain percentage of U.S. food aid must get transported aboard U.S. vessels, even if foreign carriers offer a lower price. Researchers say the law has cost the U.S. government at least $140 million a year on unnecessarily expensive transportation — money that could have been spent on food for millions of people or used elsewhere entirely … The provision seems to have stalled for now…” (Katz, 6/25).