Rich McCormick Applauds Rubio For ‘Reforging State Department That Champions American Interest’

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week, Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) praised Sec. Marco Rubio for his actions within the U.S. Department of State.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Representative Ammo. And I would remind you, it would be unconventional to have

00:03unconfirmed appointees come and testify before us. Additionally, I don't know if you were present,

00:09but Mr. Morocco did come and speak to us, testify before us as well. And Secretary Rubio is scheduled

00:15to come sometime later in May. I don't know the exact date right offhand. And I would just take

00:20the opportunity to thank Secretary Rubio for what is his commitment to the American people,

00:24which is to say very plainly that any dollar that goes out the door, whether to an American,

00:31a foreign company, a foreign NGO, a foreign nonprofit, a foreign adversary, a foreign enemy,

00:36or anybody else, will meet the justification that it's better spent going abroad than staying in the

00:46pocket of an American. That is his standard, that he should be able to look somebody in the eye

00:52and say, the dollar that came out of your pocket is better spent going to the Taliban or to some

00:59other continent or some non-government organization or somewhere else than staying in your pocket.

01:05That is the barrier, the threshold that he wishes to meet. And I applaud him on that.

01:10And I recognize Representative McCormick.

01:13Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to the witnesses for your testimony today.

01:16It's been 13 years since we last passed a State Department reauthorization. Since then,

01:24we've seen organizations go totally overboard in promoting radical ideologies worldwide and executing

01:30our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, which I take very personally. President Trump and

01:35Secretary Rubio are reforging a State Department that champions American interests and responsibility

01:40of stewards, taxpayers' dollars. Soon, it will be our job to codify that, to make it permanent.

01:50I think when we talk about responsibilities and shifting responsibilities inside of our departments,

01:55Mr. Jeffrey, I wanted to ask you, there have been discussions about making the Department of

02:00Homeland Security responsible for overseas visa operations instead of the state. This is a critical

02:06matter, especially in my constituency, which is about 14 percent Indian diaspora, about 40 percent

02:11minorities, many who have family who come in and out of the United States. I just want to make sure

02:16that when we ensure the Department of Homeland Security takes over, that they are prepared to do so

02:23without any problems in the transition. Do you think that's possible?

02:28I can't get into the details of who they would have.

02:31As a basic principle, however, they own the policies. They work with Congress to develop our overall

02:40immigration policy. The Immigration and Naturalization Act is under their purview. And thus, I think they

02:46should have people in the field who are doing that, just like other agents have people in the field.

02:51A critical rationale for that, Congressman, is that this usually doesn't involve high-level country-to-country

02:59discussions, because every country treats who comes in and out of its country as its own business.

03:05And for example, you may be issuing visas in Ecuador. The Ecuadorian government isn't going to be calling

03:11you all of the time to protest what you're doing or not doing. So you don't have the same level of

03:18diplomatic involvement. That is usually the litmus test for me of whether the State Department in an embassy

03:23should manage that through the State Department officers there or whether we should have other

03:29people out there. So in other words, we'll be able to execute this without losing any abilities or time,

03:35but to make it a little bit safer for the American people?

03:38The devil is always in the details on any administrative change. They always bring with them turmoil in the

03:49short run. In the long run, the question is, is it a more rational way of applying our resources

03:56and our focus? That's a function that isn't central to protecting the American people in terms of

04:08threats from abroad. Well, actually it is, I'm sorry, but it is a very important mission. But it is one,

04:16again, that's technical in nature and that follows very specific laws, again, that DHS, not the State

04:22Department, puts out. Okay, great. Mr. Hale, million dollar question for you. Based on your experience,

04:30what specific changes can we make to the State Department through this reauthorization bill

04:36that would have the biggest positive impact on our national security and diplomacy? I know that's a big

04:42question, but if you can hone it down to once, what is the one big bite we can take out of this that

04:46would make us better?

04:50Insist that the Foreign Service actually goes back to basics. Whatever organizational chart you look at,

04:57you know, is going to reflect certain transitory values, but the Foreign Service has to do its basic

05:03core function of diplomacy. And so as you write this authorization bill, I would ask you again,

05:07as I said at the beginning, to be persistent and not just, you know, once you've written a bill,

05:13you're done. It's also about the continued engagement to make sure that Foreign Service

05:17actually has the training and the skills and the leadership needed to fulfill whatever mandates you've

05:22given the authors through the authorization process. And I would say the biggest, to get really to your

05:27question, to me the biggest gap right now that I see when you look down the horizon that we're not ready for,

05:33is the growing importance of science and technology in the work of diplomacy. We're never going to be

05:39scientists, we're never going to be, you know, that person, but we have to have much greater fluency

05:45in the substance of science writ large. I'm talking about everything from cyber to pandemics,

05:52that is the case today. As a member of cyber on HASC, as a member of science, space, technology,

05:58and as a member of foreign affairs, I couldn't agree with you more. Thank you for that summary,

06:02and we didn't even coordinate. With that I yield, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Representative McCormick.

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