Sara Jacobs Slams GOP Push To Reorganize The State Department: It Is ‘Marred By Chaos’

Forbes Breaking News

During Wednesday’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) questioned State Department officials about the goals of State Department reorganization.

Transcript

00:00Thank you Mr. Chairman and thank you to our witnesses for being here. I'm

00:04actually really glad we're convening this hearing today. I'll be honest when

00:07I worked at the State Department I was incredibly frustrated with the longtime

00:12career diplomats who were very resistant to change and I think that that

00:16mentality has contributed to the department's ineffectiveness over the

00:20years. I think reform is absolutely needed in the State Department. In fact I

00:24passed bipartisan legislation to help address risk aversion and the bunker

00:28mentality at our embassies and other reforms to how we do security

00:32assistance, how we do foreign assistance. So that's why I am so disappointed that

00:37this reorganization effort has become a partisan exercise marred by chaos and

00:42without regard to the law. Between the leaked proposal we've seen to slash the

00:46department's budget in half, the commitments to cut staff by 15% despite

00:52the department now having to take on what is left of USAID programming, and reports

00:57that the department will significantly downsize its diplomatic presence abroad.

01:01Taken together I actually don't think these reforms will lead to a more

01:06effective State Department which is what we really want. The reality is we do need

01:11to think more strategically about what our national security priorities and

01:15interests are in a multi-polar world, but Chairman Mast I just fundamentally

01:21disagree with you that human rights and our values aren't part of that because I

01:24think our power is derived from our ability to build international

01:28coalitions and to do that we need to address our values and build our

01:33coalitions around that. So first I want to focus on an area of ongoing reform that I

01:39think we can learn from. Chairman Emeritus McCall and I, my good friend,

01:44introduced our reauthorization for the Global Fragility Act. This focuses on

01:48important reforms for how we get to align policy and programs, more robust monitoring and

01:53evaluation, but Secretary Rubio's reorganization proposal which shut down

01:58the Conflict and Stabilization Operations Bureau, which I actually worked at, which is

02:02leading the implementation. And look we can have a separate debate on the best way

02:06to house the kind of conflict expertise in the department. We led a GAO review of CSO

02:11under the Biden administration, but Secretary Zea, as Undersecretary of J, you

02:17oversaw the work of CSO and the Global Fragility Act. Can you discuss the

02:21importance of maintaining the Global Fragility Act team led by an assistant

02:25secretary as required by law to actually implement GFA and meet its statutory

02:29obligations? Thank you, Representative Jacobs, and thanks to you and

02:34Representative McCall for your bipartisan leadership in the Global Fragility Act.

02:38This is exactly the kind of state modernization that I think we should

02:42rally bipartisan support for, and I saw this firsthand in my role as Undersecretary

02:47Committee, visiting GFA partner countries, Mozambique, Côte d'Ivoire, as well as Haiti.

02:55And what I saw on the ground was a shift away from open-ended assistance

03:01commitments, you know, where implementation is defined as spending money and really

03:06focusing on measuring results, evidence-based approaches, and course

03:12corrections. And it is very sad to me that this effort is now being potentially

03:19extinguished just two years in when it's starting to bear fruit. It's about

03:24integrating State Department efforts with our colleagues at DOD, with USAID, but

03:30also with international partners who have followed our lead, particularly in

03:35coastal West Africa, where we have four embassies working together in an

03:39integrated way. I have never seen, but you've got the international financial

03:43institutions, the EU, and the Brits coming in behind to focus on the same areas.

03:49And I do want to make a point about human rights and security and hard security.

03:54Representative Wilson mentioned his visit to Syria. I was a human rights officer in

03:59Syria under Hafez al-Assad. At this point, our support for pluralism, for inclusion of women

04:08in Syria's transitional government and process, that is absolutely a guarantor of security.

04:15And Syria is a diverse country of many faiths. We cannot allow it to fall into a majoritarian

04:22system that oppresses so many of Syria's people after the immense suffering they've had. That's also

04:29why accountability is so important. So we can finally achieve accountability for the Assad regime's

04:37horrific crimes. Thank you. I really appreciate that. And I think one of the really innovative

04:43reforms in the Global Fragility Act is being able to assess the effectiveness of U.S. policy

04:49in a single country across all of our activities done by all different agencies. And I know that

04:53sounds simple, but actually GFA is the only capability we've ever had to assess whether or not

04:59our policy, whole of government in a country, is actually achieving its goals. So I do hope that

05:03Secretary Rubio will maintain that function. And Mr. Chairman, I yield back. Thank you,

05:08Representative Jacobs. We now recognize Representative Smith from New Jersey. Thank you.

Category

Transcript

Recommended