Tim Kaine Asks State Department Official Point Blank If He Feels Ashamed About Burning Food Meant For Aid

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At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) asked Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Michael Rigas about burning food that was meant for aid.

Transcript

00:00Keene, I guess you made the deal. You're up. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr.

00:04Regas, good to see you again. Mr. Chair, I'd like to introduce into the record an

00:07article from Reuters dated May 16, 2025 titled, Exclusive U.S. Aid Cuts Leave

00:13Food for Millions Moldering and Storage. It will be entered in the record. Let me

00:18just read some excerpts from this article that came out two months ago

00:21today. Food rations that could supply 3.5 million people for a month are

00:26moldering in warehouses around the world because of U.S. aid cuts and risk

00:30becoming unstable. The food stocks have been stuck inside four U.S.

00:34government warehouses since the Trump administration's decisions in January to

00:39cut global aid programs. A spokesperson for the State Department, which oversees

00:45USAID, said in response to detailed questions about the food stocks that it

00:49was working to ensure the uninterrupted continuation of aid programs and their

00:54transfer by July as part of the USAID decommissioning process. Quote, USAID is

01:00continuously consulting with partners on where to best distribute commodities at

01:04USAID warehouses. A proposal to hand the stocks to aid organizations is on hold.

01:12Finally, nearly 500 tons of high-energy biscuits stored at a USAID warehouse in

01:17Dubai are due to expire in July, according to a former USAID official. The biscuits

01:23could feed at least 27,000 acutely malnourished children for a month. The

01:28biscuits are now likely to be destroyed or turned into animal feed. That article

01:34was from two months ago. Yesterday, The Atlantic reported that the expiration date on

01:39those 500 tons of nutritious food for starving kids was now upon us and the U.S.

01:45had decided to incinerate that food rather than allow starving children to have it. Mr.

01:51you assured the deputy secretary for management and resources. These are resources that were

01:57purchased with U.S. taxpayer dollars. They're specifically designed to save the lives of starving

02:03children. Why is it a good use of resources to not distribute that food to kids and instead burn it?

02:10Thank you for the question, Senator. I'd have to look into that particular issue and see how those food

02:17stuff got there. Can I just interrupt for a second? I asked this question at a hearing yesterday so you

02:23would be prepared to know that I would ask it today and we called your office to tell you that I would

02:28ask it today. So the notion that you need to look into it strikes me as a little bit odd. As you sit here

02:34today, is that food being distributed to kids or is it being incinerated? If it's been expired, my

02:41understanding is it's the policy of the government to not distribute expired food or medicine. Then given

02:48that this has been written about for months and the article in March that I introduced in the record

02:52was not the first. We've been asking Secretary Rubio about this back into March. Since it has been known

03:00for months that this food would have an expiration date, why has the State Department decided to burn it

03:08rather than distribute it to starving children? Yeah, I don't have a good answer for that question,

03:13Senator. I am as distressed about that as you are. Okay, so I was going to ask you, does that kind

03:19of make you feel ashamed? Are you proud of it or are you indifferent to it? Look, I don't think it's,

03:24you know, I'm not going to say I'm ashamed or proud or indifferent to it, but I think that was a

03:29failure. How about this? Just as a statement of proposition. If the U.S. uses taxpayer dollars

03:34to buy specialty foods for starving children, I think it's better that the food be distributed to

03:41starving children rather than incinerated. You would agree? I completely agree with that. Yeah,

03:45I think this was just a casualty of the shutdown of the U.S. I view it as an intentional thing,

03:52because if we suddenly woke up in July, oh gosh, the expiration date is today. Yeah. You know,

03:58that would be one thing. But in March, there was a request by the World Food Program and others,

04:03look, if you're not going to distribute it, maybe you've decided the U.S. that starving kids are no

04:08longer your thing. Yeah. But you have this asset. If you're not going to distribute it, we'll distribute

04:13it. Yeah. So it's not a mistake if you've been on notice of it for two months and you've made the

04:20decision to keep the warehouse locked and allow this food to be destroyed rather than, again, I think the

04:27article says this would feed at least 27,000 acutely malnourished children for a month.

04:36I mean, so is this incompetence or cruelty or both? I'd have to look into what the facts of the

04:41matter were. If there were another aid organization that was asking to have access to that to deliver

04:46it. Well, yeah, I want you to look into it. I really hoped you'd come to me today and say,

04:51having been put on notice, I was going to ask this, we're going to give the food to kids. Hey,

04:55you went to Boston University. Who is the most famous BU alum? The most famous BU alum? Next to

05:01you. I don't know. I don't want to offend anyone that's graduated from BU. I'll tell you who it is.

05:07Okay. Martin Luther King Jr. What do you think Martin Luther King Jr. would say about a nation

05:14that purchased food for starving kids and then locked it in a warehouse until it expired and incinerated it

05:20rather than giving it out so that 27,000 starving kids could survive meagerly for one more month?

05:27Well, we're still the biggest giver of aid anywhere in the world by far. So I think-

05:33I'll just conclude. I want to hand it back to you, Mr. Chair. A lot of complicated issues. You know,

05:39sometimes the tiniest detail really exposes the soul. You know, we had a big bill that increased the

05:45deficit by three trillion and big tax breaks and cut snap and all of that. But a government that is

05:53put on notice, here are resources that will save 27,000 starving kids. Can you please distribute them

06:00or give them to someone who can, who decides, no, we would rather keep the warehouse locked,

06:06let the food expire, and then burn it. To me, that really exposes the soul of this endeavor.

06:14And I am glad to hear you at least say that my questions cause you some concern.

06:22I certainly, I did say that. I'll say it again. And look, this is a media account,

06:25so I'd want to look into, look, I have to, you know, forgive me if I don't always take everything

06:30that's reported in the media to be 100 percent factual, but I do want to find out what happened

06:35here and get to the ground truth. Thank you. And if that's what happened. Thank you.

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