Castro Presses Official About Funding Freezes: ‘Do You Expect Adverse Effects' For The INL?

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During Thursday’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) questioned witnesses about the potential for adverse effects on the INL caused by funding freezes.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00All right, thank you, Chairwoman.

00:10Yeah, I want to take up this issue really quickly because,

00:12you know, we disagree, Maria, on this.

00:15I don't think there's ever been a bias of the United States

00:20against conservative leaders and in favor of leftist leaders.

00:26In fact, when you look at the history

00:28of the U.S. involvement in Latin America, Latin America has often,

00:32I mean, the United States, unfortunately, in decades past,

00:36worked to undermine the leadership of leaders

00:39on the left and treated leaders on the right as friends.

00:44And, in fact, supported what were some

00:46of the most brutal dictatorships,

00:48like the Pinochet ruling, in Chile.

00:51And so, you know, when we think about how we provide U.S. assistance,

01:00how we provide taxpayer money, the way we should be thinking

01:05about it is who is operating consistent

01:09with U.S. values and what we stand for?

01:12So, democracy, freedom, respect for human rights.

01:16Really, regardless of where you are on the political spectrum,

01:19whether you're on the left or the right as a leader,

01:22we ought to support leaders who are pursuing those things.

01:25And so, Consuelo Porras, as I understand,

01:31had been sanctioned for severe corruption.

01:35That's why we're not working with her,

01:37not because she's got a certain ideology.

01:40You know, and Bukele also, I think it's true.

01:46I mean, he has gotten a lot of crime off the streets

01:50and has scared a lot of people, especially young men.

01:54But so has Xi Jinping in China.

01:59And so, you know, if the question is, well,

02:03why don't we just let people do what they're going to do?

02:06Okay, I get that.

02:07But the question for us is, are we going to back them up with money

02:11to commit human rights abuses and other things

02:14that we would never allow for in the United States ourselves?

02:18Now, bear in mind, in the last few weeks,

02:20we've seen some disturbing instances

02:23of people literally being picked off the street

02:25for having exercised their First Amendment rights

02:29by government agents who don't identify themselves,

02:32who aren't dressed in uniform,

02:34and who barely present credentials, if at all.

02:38Those are the kinds of activities that you're used to seeing

02:41in countries that violate people's rights.

02:44So just, you know, with that disagreement,

02:48let me get into a question really quick.

02:52Ms. Kenney, as you know,

02:53the administration is conducting multiple reviews

02:55of foreign assistance programs.

02:57And I believe those programs have been incredibly disruptive

03:00and that the review has not been done in good faith.

03:03In 2019, the first Trump administration did something

03:06similar on a smaller scale.

03:08They unilaterally froze $400 million

03:10in foreign assistance funding in Central America

03:12for over 14 months.

03:14At the time, I, along with other colleagues,

03:16requested the GAO assess the impacts of that freeze.

03:20The GAO determined that many programs,

03:22including State Department INL Bureau programs,

03:25had been adversely affected.

03:28And based on your experience with the 2019 freeze,

03:31do you expect adverse effects from the ongoing freeze

03:34on many INL programs?

03:36Thank you for that question.

03:38Yes. When we reviewed the freeze in 2019,

03:41we found that there were a number of adverse effects.

03:45To the State Department, we found that about 65 or 39%

03:49of INL programs actually suffered adverse effects

03:52where they had to reduce the geographical region

03:55in which they were implementing programs.

03:57They had to reduce the number of beneficiaries

03:59who could participate in trainings.

04:00They had to reduce the quality of programs.

04:02And programs that relied

04:04on implementing partners suffered even more consequences

04:09because they had to lay people off

04:11and they were unable to pick up those programs

04:13when the funding resumed.

04:14However, that funding was really just a freeze

04:16of one-year funding.

04:17And in a lot of ways, those programs were able to continue

04:20because of funding that was still available in the pipeline

04:22from prior years' funding.

04:23We haven't had an opportunity

04:25to review the funding freeze that is occurring right now.

04:28But my understanding is that those programs aren't able

04:31to access prior-year funding either.

04:33And so my understanding is

04:34that they're not continuing at all.

04:36We haven't had, I'm sorry.

04:37Sure, sure.

04:38No, and thank you for that.

04:39And let me ask a follow-up really quick.

04:41Will the GAO be willing to conduct a review

04:43of the ongoing freeze and cancellation of hundreds

04:46of millions of dollars in foreign assistance programs?

04:49Yes, we'd be happy to do that work.

04:50Thank you so much.

04:52With that, I yield back, Chairwoman.

04:55Thank you, Ranking Member Castro.

04:57And now.

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