Tammy Bruce Defends State Department Absorbing USAID: 'Within The Nature Of Needing To Reform The Government'

Forbes Breaking News

State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked about USAID being absorbed into the State Department and the impact of its merger.

Transcript

00:00all right thank you andrea um i want to ask you about the passing of usaid the demise of a usaid

00:08being absorbed into the state department in a very different fashion according to the lancet

00:14highly respected british medical journal usaid was responsible for saving 90 million lives

00:23over the course of two decades american aid was responsible for that andrea i'll correct you

00:27right there usaid was a an element of the united states government dispersing taxpayer funds around

00:34the world for humanitarian aid for a variety of different projects it was the united states

00:40government and is when it comes to the aid not not a department but the nature of what this government

00:46under various administrations had approved let's keep that in mind can i can just please do but i

00:52wanted that's a very it's a it's something worth correcting and former president bush who was

00:58responsible for pepfar uh with bipartisan majorities in congress for years uh suggested that the saving

01:10of 25 million lives from antiretroviral drugs as on hiv aids as well as tuberculosis is something that

01:19uh the usaid staff because he sent this to the usaid staff in a video and he said that you should be

01:26proud of it and god bless you all for what you did so i just want to ask you about how it is going to be

01:32reconstituted because the prep the secretary's uh writing on substack describes it as wasteful

01:42and not fulfilling u.s goals in broad categories and it is very it's contrary to what republicans and

01:50democrats have said in congress for yes not it is inevitably it grew into something that was beyond

01:59what it was meant to do there's clearly some very good options and aid that was delivered uh and that aid

02:07was maintained but what we found was something that was unacceptable we've been discussing this

02:12transparently from the beginning of the trump administration and secretary rubio's uh state

02:17department that this and i'll i guess i'll have to repeat that there is the past things that happened

02:24in the past uh certainly aid that went out that was beneficial that has been maintained and other aid that

02:31was not in line with america's priorities or what certainly the trump administration and the rubio

02:36state department felt was appropriate so they've taken action in that regard uh it is also what i've

02:41said repeatedly is even though the mechanism has changed because it grew uh it grew unable to function

02:52in a manner where even uh auditing was uh something that was easy to do there was a refusal to uh allow

03:01an auditing at the beginning of this administration uh there was a sense that it was some independent

03:06organization not something associated with the with the united states government all of that is absurd

03:12it led to yes a dramatic action to look at and to review and to audit the entity we've done that a great

03:20deal of aid has remained a great deal has been suspended or cut entirely it fit well within the nature of

03:27needing to reform the government as a whole via the president's uh executive order to do so and to save

03:34money i'll repeat again samantha powers the last usa director under the last administration at the end of

03:402024 complained in public statements that when she started only seven percent of aid money that was assigned

03:48to to various projects and groups made it to its intended destination and that's because of bureaucracy

03:56and layers of contractors and she was proud that she got it up to ten percent all of us would agree that

04:04that's unacceptable and that even if you do cut the amount of money that's going out doesn't mean that

04:10the services get cut it doesn't mean that the benefits get cut it could in fact mean more services more

04:17benefits with less bureaucracy with services getting directly to the people who need it i i'll finish

04:22you you you stated a number of things that i think are unfortunate and the american people deserve to hear

04:29an answer because we've also described you asked how will this look now with this reorganization it fits

04:36within the framework of making sure that people assigned to those regions and we have those that's

04:42called bureaus here people who are assigned to look at the nature of what's happening in a certain

04:46region of the world they're the experts in that regard that foreign assistance for that region

04:52will now sit with the bureau assigned to that region as opposed to some massive bureaucracy not even

04:59housed in our building dealing with countries and regions separately without dealing with the experts

05:06here who understand what those regions might need it will be more efficient it will be more effective

05:11we are not ending foreign aid we are making it more nimble we are operating at the speed of relevancy to

05:19making sure that the millions and billions of dollars that we spend on aid get to where it is meant to go

05:27there is nothing to be proud of when 90 percent according to samantha powers is not even making it to the

05:35the people to whom it was promised these are promises donald trump makes promises and he keeps

05:41them promises made promises kept we will be doing that also now with foreign aid with the new structure

05:47of how this will be working we are we are of course it is in our dna we exist in large part because of the

05:56nature of what america stands for as a beacon of hope for the future for the world we've died on that

06:04principle we live on that principle and we are giving foreign aid on that principle but it will be

06:09functional it will be auditable we will know where it's going and we will see results

Category

Transcript

Recommended