Mark Alford Admits 'When I Got On This Subcommittee, I Didn't Even Know What PEPFAR Was'

Forbes Breaking News

5 months ago

During a House Appropriations Committee hearing earlier this month, Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) spoke about PEPFAR.

Transcript

00:00The gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Alford, is recognized for remarks on the bill.

00:11Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be brief because I know we have a long day today,

00:15but I want to point out some successes in this bill that I think are germane and very important

00:22as we move forward. First of all, Mr. Chairman Dias-Billard, I want to thank you for your hard

00:28work on that, and I'm not just trying to ingratiate myself. I really mean this. When I got on this

00:36subcommittee, I didn't even know what PEPFAR was, and I have learned over the last couple of months

00:43exactly what it is and the 26 million lives that it has saved since 2003. You remember when we got

00:51in our subcommittee meeting a couple of months ago, there was a lot of consternation after the

00:55testimony from our witnesses about the future of PEPFAR. We were in danger of losing this program,

01:04the signature program for President George W. Bush. Our chairman went to bat for this program.

01:15He found the money for this program, and this program will exist not forever, but as it was

01:24intended to be a temporary program, we are directing the Secretary of State Marco Rubio to come up with a

01:33transition plan and report back to us under our oversight position to transition this all-important

01:43program to African nations, to the Global Fund, and to other entities which can carry it forward.

01:49I think that is a significant win in this bill. It is a bipartisan win because I know that the

01:56members that I have talked with, including the ranking member of this full committee and the

02:02ranking member of the subcommittee, have a deep passion for this program, as we all should.

02:07So I applaud you, Mr. DSLR, in saving PEPFAR.

02:11Remember, USAID, I'm not going to go into all the crazy programs that somehow got wrapped up

02:20over the years that we were paying, the American taxpayers were paying for. You sat here and you

02:27heard Secretary Marco Rubio enumerate some of these programs. I think the American taxpayers disgusted that

02:35we got to this level where we were paying this type of money for these programs. And yet I've seen

02:41some of these programs that actually work, and I've enumerated those and spoken about them in the

02:46news media and to you, some of you here in this committee. That is the type of soft power, although

02:54I don't like that term, that we need to continue. And some of those programs will continue, thanks to

02:59our chairman, DSLR. Under a new title, under a new branding, these programs will continue as national

03:09security investment programs, mirroring the new name for our subcommittee. Because I think we all

03:16have to realize at one point, we are $37 trillion in debt. We've got to put America first, but we also

03:24have to consider our influence in the rest of the world. And so by continuing with national security

03:31investment programs, we are putting down on paper and putting in our minds and our hearts that it

03:38doesn't have to do with national security. We should not be spending taxpayer dollars on it.

03:46Lastly, I'd like to say, I had an old preacher back in the 80s, a friend of mine, and he had this

03:53familiar saying. He said, it was always right to do right. It's always wrong to do wrong. It's never right

04:00to do wrong, and it's never wrong to do right. I will submit to you here today, my friends on the

04:07Appropriations Committee, we are doing the right thing. We are making the cuts necessary to move

04:15the ball forward, to keep us afloat as a nation, while securing our place on the world stage and

04:22our influence. Let's work together to make that happen. Let's continue to have conversations,

04:27conversations, not just in this committee room, but outside it, so we can work together to make

04:34America first, so we can be the strong power that we need to be for the rest of the nation.

04:39With that, I yield back. Thank you.

Mark Alford Admits 'When I Got On This Subcommittee, I Didn't Even Know What PEPFAR Was'

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