00:00Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. I just might quickly say that a while ago we had a briefing by USAID senior officials, Jim Cunder, Chris Milligan, and just a quote, what has been done was an 84% cut to USAID.
00:19It scatters the remnants of USAID across a dozen state bureaus and almost guarantees that our competitors will dominate in local competition. The fact is, people have been fired and agencies and programs have been terminated.
00:39Secretary Rubio, human lives have been lost. Extensive damage is done to the U.S. international standing under your watch. This would not have happened if the administration had followed the law and congressional intent.
00:52Congress appropriated foreign aid funding with a clear set of directives, yet with no notice to Congress. The administration has broken the law, completely dismantled U.S. foreign aid, hijacked funding for the State Department and USAID at the behest of Elon Musk and Doge.
01:06I might just say, you don't have the authority, Elon Musk doesn't have the authority, the president doesn't have the authority, and OMB doesn't have the authority.
01:16The authority to appropriate funding comes from this body, the United States Congress, and it is so stated in the Constitution.
01:24You're now sitting on billions of dollars. This subcommittee, which appropriated that funding in the first place, has no idea of how you plan to use them.
01:31Secretary, how do you plan to spend your agency's remaining fiscal year 2025 money, if not as directed by the Congress?
01:40Well, I think the president, through OMB, is going to work with you and the Congress on how best to, you know, reset the funding levels for the new year and how to move those funds.
01:48And we await OMB guidance in that regard.
01:50Well, I would just say for months we have been asking for a list of which programs were cut and why, and all we have received is this unintelligible spread sheet that does not seem to reflect reality.
02:03We need clear answers on how you need to plan to spend this year's funding and asking for a commitment that you let us know, because you have terminated programs, you have fired staff, what are you going to do with that money that was already appropriated?
02:18Well, again, we're waiting for OMB guidance, and obviously they'll reach out and work with Congress on these funds.
02:23OMB is not working with Congress. The president is not working with Congress. You are not working with the Congress.
02:29We need to understand, if we are going to appropriate dollars, what it is that has happened, what is it that you propose to do with the billions of dollars that you have expropriated, if you will?
02:41Yeah, again, that's a function, as you know, that's OMB has those decisions to make and they'll have to work with you on it.
02:45Well, then I guess you don't have much control over your agency, Mr. Secretary.
02:47Ultimately, we have a lot of control.
02:49According to public reporting, you have terminated more than 90% of USAID programs, 60% of programs at state, the firing of all our development experts in the next few weeks and are preparing to fire hundreds more at the State Department.
03:06We need an accountability.
03:08And if we can't, I don't know, if we can't get it from the secretary, then from whom are we going to get this accountability?
03:14It is your department.
03:16Well, with all due respect, some of your numbers are incorrect.
03:18We have not cut 60% of the funding at the State Department.
03:20If you're referring to the budget request, that's different.
03:23There has not been mass layoffs at the State Department.
03:25I think there's less than 200 people that have been riffed from the State Department.
03:30I'm talking about, well, USAID.
03:32Oh, well, that's a different one.
03:33Well, no, it's not a different issue.
03:34You now plan to take on, and the gentleman said you're going to scatter the remnants of USAID throughout the State Department.
03:43Who is going to make sure appropriated funds are spent properly?
03:47Well, they're not going to be scattered.
03:48They're actually going to be consolidated in a number, a couple of funds that deliver, for example, International Humanitarian Assistance Fund.
03:55We'll also have an increase to the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund.
03:58You mentioned previous secretaries who have moved in this direction, and I just want to say to you that they decided not to do it because it was ill-advised.
04:08Fifteen percent of the planned cuts, there's 15 percent planned cuts of state staff.
04:13Now, who is going to make sure that appropriated funds are spent properly if you have fired all the staff with experience overseeing the process?
04:25Will you personally be approving every expenditure?
04:29I know you have a lot of jobs already.
04:32No, we're not.
04:33First of all, we haven't fired any experienced staff other than the people that were riffed out of the two divisions in the department.
04:39But other than that, I said at the State Department, there's been only under 200 people have been removed.
04:44Some have retired and so forth, but that's normal in any cycle.
04:47We're also going to hire new people.
04:48Let me just say, my time is short, Mr. Secretary.
04:51So is mine, and that's why I want to tell you that we're also going to bring in people from USAID.
04:54My time is short.
04:56I reclaim my time.
04:57You have terminated key monitoring and evaluation programs allow us to account for the use of this funding.
05:03How does allowing the money to flow out the door while hamstringing your own ability to track that money make our government more efficient and prevent waste, fraud, and abuse?
05:12It's clear that from the administration and Musk that the process is ignorant of the purpose of foreign aid, utterly unprepared to manage their own dictates, taking a chainsaw to foreign aid with no concern for human lives or the broader consequences for our security.
