James Moylan Touts State Department Reauthorization Efforts, Praises Rubio’s ‘Excellent Leadership’

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week, Del. James Moylan (R-Guam) spoke in support of reauthorizing the State Department.

Transcript

00:00Thank you Mr. Chairman for holding this hearing today and for your efforts to reauthorize

00:09the State Department.

00:11Long overdue tasks and despite Secretary Rubio's excellent leadership, the State Department

00:16is in desperate need of reauthorization between budgetary constraints and overlapping objectives.

00:22The department clearly needs Congress to undertake this belated process.

00:27Guam is at the forefront of many defense-related conversations, but it's important to recognize

00:32our role in other sectors of international relations.

00:36I want to commend the Guam Visitors Bureau and the Guam Economic Development Authority

00:41for serving as part of America's face in the Pacific.

00:44While these local agencies work tirelessly to promote positive international relations,

00:50I'm glad these committees seek to reauthorize the State Department because there are many

00:55areas of U.S. diplomacy to improve.

00:59One of the problems we must address is the reform of foreign assistance programs.

01:04This February, the committee explored options to enhance the role of U.S. assistance in USAID.

01:11The conclusion was obvious, cut the wasteful funds and keep the strategic valuable parts.

01:17As we contend with China, reauthorizing the Office of Foreign Assistance, Global Partnership,

01:22and the Development Finance Corporation is imperative to enhance U.S. soft power.

01:29Similarly, the reauthorization will strengthen U.S. foreign policy from an economic perspective.

01:36During an East Asian and Pacific Subcommittee Roundtable, it became evident that the State Department

01:42is undermanned in the economic sphere.

01:45Without a doubt, developing relationships with other countries through economic tools

01:50can make the U.S. presence in the region more visible and effective.

01:54This also fosters mutual beneficial relations while creating opportunities for the U.S. private sector,

02:01allowing Americans to feel the positive effects of our diplomatic efforts.

02:06Ambassador Hill, considering China's massive Belt and Road Initiative,

02:11how do you evaluate the current move by the administration to scale back these programs

02:17and the workforce?

02:18Based on your experience as a career ambassador, what would be the most effective framework to

02:23plan, implement, and access foreign assistance programs under the Secretary of State?

02:30Well, we definitely need to make sure that we have the resources and manpower needed in order

02:36to deal with the Chinese, our competitive relationship with China across the globe.

02:41No question about that.

02:42I would say though, as I said earlier, that we also need to measure the impact not by the

02:47amount spent, but by the results that we have achieved and then fine tune whatever it is

02:54that we're doing.

02:56Our methodology is very different than the Chinese methodology, and to try to compete on the same

03:00terms that they do.

03:01You know, they have a state-directed economy, so they can send whatever resources they want

03:04all around the world.

03:06No one's going to say no.

03:07The United States is a private sector economy, of course, so no one at the State Department

03:11can sit and tell, you know, Bechtel where to spend their money.

03:14We need to help them, enable them, make sure that there's a level playing field that the

03:18Chinese aren't eating everything up.

03:20But that's a little bit different.

03:23And so I wouldn't necessarily say that dollar for dollar is the way to measure it.

03:27We also have a, you know, Parkinson's law, the bureaucratic principle that work expands

03:32to the number of people you assign to do it.

03:35Right?

03:36What is it we want to do is the starting point, not how many people are we going to get to

03:40do it.

03:41And so I would argue, you know, I'll give you an example out of my career.

03:43When I was director for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, you know, we had a certain pretty big office.

03:50I went overseas.

03:51I came back five years later as the next rung up in the bureaucracy, deputy assistant secretary.

03:56My enterprising successor had doubled the size of the office of the Israeli-Palestinian

04:00affairs in five years.

04:03The work hadn't changed.

04:04Our interests hadn't changed.

04:05Our programs hadn't changed.

04:07They were all busy people doing busy things.

04:10Did we need it?

04:11Who is there making the judgment?

04:13What are the results?

04:15And so I would ask us to always bear that in mind.

04:19Ambassador Jeffrey, we just have a few seconds here.

04:22As I previously mentioned, an East Asia Pacific subcommittee roundtable determined the economic

04:27offices at the Department of State have been undermanned based on your career at both State

04:32Department and National Security Council.

04:34Do you agree on this conclusion?

04:36What economic tools would you like to see fixed and reauthorized?

04:39In terms of the economic side of the State Department, I'm not so sure we have too few offices.

04:48I think that they need to be better integrated into what other parts of the U.S. government,

04:55who have interests abroad from the Department of Agriculture, USTR, we talked about earlier.

05:00That's something that needs to be worked on more.

05:05That can be through training.

05:06That can be through assignments and other agencies, which we tried to do, but it's very hard in

05:12the bureaucracy.

05:13Thank you, Ambassador.

05:14I'm sorry.

05:15We ran out of time.

05:16Pardon?

05:17Thank you for your comments.

05:18Thank you to the panel.

05:19Thank you, Mr. Chair.

05:21Representative Jackson.

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