Subject: Senate Demo Steering meeting today on Food Security
From: "Glickman, Dan" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2015 15:42:38 +0000

Very good meeting.  Senators who attended part or most of the meeting were Klobuchar (chair), Harry Reid, Stabenow, Blumenthal, Whitehouse, Merkeley, Durbin, Cardin, Casey, Coons, McGaskill and Kaine.  And about 20-30 staff folks.  Liz Schrayer was in attendance.   Great attendance.  Senator Lugar was a big hit, and Raj did a superb job.

Speakers (short comments) came from me, Senator Lugar and Raj Shah.  More general discussion included Ertharin, David Lane, David Beckmann, Michael Elliot, and Brady ? from BIFAD.  My points mostly dealt with the bipartisan support for these programs, and the importance for American leadership and an engaged US in the developing world.  But almost every topic you can imagine was discussed.

Great discussion of Feed the Future, Food Air Reform, humanitarian and relief challenges, women and girls programs, and confirmation of USAID leaders including Gail Smith.  All positive discussion which led me to believe that chances were good for passage of the Casey bill and FtF, AID confirmations, and perhaps food aid reform