Mike Lawler Cites Lack of Answers From Previous Administration For Former ‘Failure’ To Reauthorize State Department

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) called out previous administrations for hindering efforts to reauthorize the U.S. Department of State.

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00:00I'm your new member here, but there has been extensive opportunity to debate the merits of

00:06programs, and unfortunately we've had person after person from the previous administration come here

00:11literally lie to Republicans and Democrats to our faces about the programs that they said they

00:17weren't doing, that they were doing. No, they don't exist. No, these slide decks don't exist. No, we

00:23weren't expanding atheism in Nepal or in other countries, and then we would get the phone calls

00:28after the hearing saying, ah, sorry, we were wrong about that. We were in fact doing that, and, you

00:35know, sorry that we spent the last however long denying these things that we were doing it, but

00:39never apologizing and never, you know, never saying this is something that we shouldn't have been doing.

00:45This is not true diplomacy. These are just the facts of what has taken place prior to your arrival here,

00:50and it's a lot of what brings us to where we are today is the fact that there has not been oversight

00:57at the State Department, and there has not been a comprehensive State Department reauthorization,

01:01unfortunately, which has really allowed these programs to continue, whether it's atheism in Nepal,

01:08or drag shows in Ecuador, or transgender job fairs in Bangladesh, or, you know, take your pick of the

01:15thousands of programs that, unfortunately, the State Department is wasting American dollars on.

01:20Uh, Representative Lawler, the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank you for,

01:25uh, holding this hearing today, and, uh, certainly as this committee gets about, uh, its important work,

01:32uh, as Chair of the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, and, uh, with oversight over M Branch,

01:39uh, I certainly am, uh, committed to and focused on, uh, the importance of a State Department

01:45reauthorization. Uh, I think the fact is, uh, this has been a failure on the part of Congress for

01:52many years, uh, in both parties to actually reauthorize, uh, the work of the State Department

01:59to, uh, provide the level of, uh, oversight that is necessary, uh, and sadly, prior administrations

02:08have refused to cooperate. Uh, you know, we've had multiple hearings where we have asked, uh,

02:14administration officials, uh, for information. Uh, we had Samantha Power here, for instance,

02:21uh, as head of USAID and asked her numerous questions and no answers provided, uh, about

02:29expenditures, uh, and programs that USAID was, uh, conducting itself. So, uh, this hearing is, uh,

02:37immensely valuable, but obviously the work that we are undertaking, uh, is important. Right now,

02:44the Foreign Service Institute is not a degree-granting institution, unlike many of its, uh, service-related

02:51counterparts. Uh, what would be the benefits of, uh, accrediting FSI, and why has this not previously

03:00been pursued, and, and what challenges might, in fact, uh, persist here? Leave it open to any of you

03:08to engage. Uh, I'll start with that. I never thought of that as a, um, and of course, the military

03:16does do that with their, uh, programs, but they're very different programs. They come in in general

03:21staff schools, the war colleges. These are year-long programs. They're very, um, academic. They're very

03:27focused on the core skills of the profession. Uh, the Foreign Service Institute, aside from its superb

03:35long-term language training, which is in a separate category, basically does, uh,

03:42short tradecraft courses. In fact, my main criticism with it is, other than the language training,

03:51most of it could be also offered to the Department of Transportation. It's all about process-y,

03:56managerial, get along with each other stuff. There's almost no training in the diplomatic,

04:01uh, tradecraft. There's almost no, uh, diplomatic history. The other things, if you go to any military,

04:09uh, college or any military... Would you push, would you push to actually, uh, ensure that it engages in that?

04:17Yes. I was actually, uh, did a six-month course once when we had it briefly, a model on the military,

04:23uh, 40 years ago. We then got rid of it. If we look, took a look at how the military does it,

04:28and do those kinds of courses that build long-term expertise in our profession, certainly they should be accredited.

04:37I think the importance of language training for our diplomats who will be interfacing with their foreign counterparts

04:44daily cannot be understated. Uh, foreign language training is one of the most crucial aspects of FSI's mission,

04:51as you mentioned. How thorough is the foreign language training at FSI, and what can they do better

04:58to better equip our foreign service officers?

05:00Uh, I think the language, uh, program there is excellent. Um, I'm sure everything can use a little bit of reform

05:08and, and, uh, and being, making sure it's up to date. Um, but I think it's one of the best things FSI does.

05:14Uh, I would just, not take your time, but I would follow up on what Jim said, and where we, I think FSI falls down,

05:22is making, you know, not giving us necessarily in the foreign service the skills we need to do tomorrow's job.

05:27Uh, tends to be backward looking, and, uh, the management stuff is very weak.

05:32Uh, most people in, encounters with FSI during the course of their career is little, sort of,

05:39computerized modules on things that are important, but routine, like how to, how to keep your security,

05:44you know, your, your computer safe from, on security grounds, and how to make sure you're living up to ethics rules.

05:50Whereas we need to understand better our core function of diplomacy.

05:54Mr. Hale, can you just describe how the Bureau of Counterterrorism's efforts integrate with broader

06:00national security strategies, uh, led by the National Security Council or other agencies?

06:07Yeah, I think, um, you know, it was, it was founded in the early 70s. Uh, it's one of those examples

06:13of an important international activity in which the State Department doesn't actually have the lead.

06:17Uh, our domestic agencies, uh, have that, and they have their own relationships overseas,

06:22which are very important, uh, intelligence and, uh, law enforcement and, and security. Uh,

06:28but it's very important that we have someone who's helping to coordinate that, make sure our embassies

06:31are, uh, on point on doing everything possible to defeat terrorism, and that they're at the table

06:36in their interagency discussions here in Washington, and I think they're well-staffed to do that.

06:40Thank you. Thank you, Representative Law.

06:43You're welcome.

06:48Thank you, Representative Law.

06:50Thank you, Representative Law.

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