00:00recognizes representative from New Jersey, Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
00:06Thank you for convening this hearing, and Secretary Regas, thank you for your testimony
00:11and your leadership. A couple of questions. You know, Marco Rubio, Secretary Rubio,
00:17gave a very interesting turn of a phrase when he said global spanning NGOs are part of an
00:26industrial complex at taxpayers' expense. I thought that was, you know, no matter what the
00:30organization is, you've got to make sure that the groups that we fund, the taxpayers subsidized,
00:35are doing the job, and they're doing it efficiently, effectively, and inside the parameters of what the
00:41mandates are. So I thought his comment, which I read on the State Department's website, was excellent.
00:48Let me ask you a question. You know, you talked about, in your testimony, about the
00:531,500 office units in the U.S. for an organization that implements foreign policy, and I'm not sure
01:00totally what that means, but I know when I wrote a law back in the year 2004 on microcredit lending,
01:07we were trying to help the poorest of the poor, those making less than a dollar a day,
01:10and we had a great bill, totally bipartisan with my colleagues, and all of a sudden,
01:15K Street weighed in, and they wanted their cut, and I was outraged by it, and we ended up,
01:20when we got it over to the Senate, we lost. They had to get their piece of it at the expense,
01:25in my humble opinion, of the poorest of the poor, and I'm not sure if that's what you're talking
01:30about, but, you know, are these people, you know, maybe they mean well, but boy, some of them,
01:35some of the NGO leaders get unbelievably large salaries, three and four times what any member
01:41of Congress might make, and I wonder about that kind of subsidization for them. So maybe you want
01:48to speak to that, and as part of modernizing the department, what steps are being taken
01:52to monitor U.S. foreign assistance to avoid waste, fraud, and abuse, if you could speak to that as
01:58well, and one last thing that for four years, I tried desperately to get information out of the
02:05U.S. Department of State, and especially USAID, about monies that were flowing, not only to PEPFAR,
02:11but elsewhere, what are we doing, who are we subsidizing, how much are they getting, and
02:18especially what are their sub-grantees getting? It was like pulling teeth. I would get these
02:23spreadsheets that weren't worth the paper they're printed on, then I would also ask as part of those
02:29data requests, what are they doing with it? Okay, you just gave three million to a sub-grantee.
02:34What are they doing with it? Crickets. Could not get it. So I thank you that you're trying,
02:40and I thank Secretary Rubio, to really get to some transparency, and we will get to it,
02:45because I couldn't get it. I sat, I met with Samantha Power, went over and met with her at
02:50her office, and very nice person, but I wouldn't get the information. How do you do oversight? And
02:55our subcommittee was tasked with that oversight, and we couldn't get it. I have paper trails of all
03:01this stuff that doesn't mean anything, frankly, because I don't know what that means. It's like
03:04saying, here's the scores of yesterday's game, eight to four, three to two. Who are they? We had
03:10no idea, and what they were actually buying with U.S. taxpayer funds. So the transparency issue is,
03:16to me, so extremely important. I know you're focused on that. And finally, just let me ask you,
03:21if I could, the Deputy Secretary of Management Resources advises the Secretary on the Department's
03:28participation in the National Economic Council and Interagency Economic Policy Matters, is that not
03:35the role for the Undersecretary for Economic Affairs or the Department's Chief Economist?
03:41So thank you for that question, Congressman. With respect to foreign aid, you know, we've gone through,
03:49and I've got a whole list in front of me, and this has been articulated, I think, previously,
03:53with respect to how money from USAID was being spent on all kinds of things that were completely
03:59unjustifiable. What we proposed in the FY26 budget is the America First Opportunity Fund. I know,
04:07you know, that got some criticism from the ranking member on that, but I think what that proposes to
04:13do is to ensure democratic accountability on how those funds are being spent. You see the president
04:19every day in front of the cameras, taking questions from the media in the Oval Office, in Cabinet
04:24meetings, when he's about to get on his plane, when he gets off his plane. He's completely accessible.
04:30The secretary is as well. And if anyone wants to ask a question about how foreign assistance money
04:35is being spent or how dollars from that fund are being spent to advance America's interests,
04:41they have an opportunity every single day to do that. By contrast, how these funds were spent at
04:46USAID, nobody knows who to ask why those monies were spent or who made the decision to spend money
04:52on, you know, a million dollars for voter ID in Haiti. I mean, there's a page after page here I
04:58have of examples like that. With respect to your question on the role of the deputy secretary for
05:04management and resources, this position provides sort of strategic oversight of the management and
05:10resources of how the department conducts its affairs with oversight, you know, primarily of the
05:16M Bureau and of the F Bureau, but really department wide. These other bureaus and officers are the
05:23action officers for those taking, you know, taking care that that strategy is effectively delivered
05:28down the chain of command and what they do every day.
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