'What Did We Do Wrong The Last 4 Years With Biden?': Maria Salazar Presses Witness About State Department Reform

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At a House Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) questioned witnesses about needed reforms for the State Department.

Transcript

00:00Yes, thanks to you, Mr. Malinowski, Congressman, and I now recognize myself for five minutes of questioning.

00:08It's fascinating everything I hear from three of you.

00:11We all agree, I think, that we want to continue being the shining city on the hill,

00:14that we are the only game in town because the Russians and the Iranians and the Chinese

00:18are really not going to promote anything close to democracy or freedom.

00:23So I'm going to go start with you, Mr. Destreau, and I think that your statement was highly enlightening.

00:29So when you say that we've got to ask ourselves hard questions,

00:33that the title of the hearing is not necessarily what we need to be looking at,

00:39we agreed that we want some return on our investment, that we want to promote democracy.

00:46That's what we're here for, and it's a little bit disturbing to hear that we've spent so much

00:52and the return has been so little.

00:54So just give me an example of in the last, let's say, in the last four years or in the last ten years,

01:01what have we done wrong, what did we do wrong in the last four years with Biden?

01:08I'm sure that there were some monies going to good programs, but, you know, perception is reality,

01:14and when we hear that there's going to be $12 million for the Guatemalans,

01:19for the native Guatemalans to have a sex change operation.

01:23You know, that doesn't really sound really good.

01:26So what did we do wrong in the last four years, and what did we do wrong in the last ten years?

01:33Put it into perspective for us, please.

01:35Well, with respect, I think that's a bit of the wrong question.

01:42I think the question is what are we doing right?

01:42Okay, so then tell me which one is the right question.

01:44What are we doing right?

01:46What are we doing right?

01:48Yeah, what are we doing right?

01:50Okay.

01:50Okay, and, you know, Congressman Malinowski and I talked about this when I was in office,

01:57and this question of, as the DRL assistant secretary, you have 1.5 billion tools at your disposal

02:09in the ESF and Human Rights Fund.

02:12You also have $40 million worth of really committed professional people working with you on those projects.

02:21And so the question becomes, where's the best place to put them?

02:26Now, all of those places that you just talked about, the sex change operations, everything else,

02:32that's not the best way to put it.

02:34It doesn't really advance our foreign policy.

02:37Correct.

02:38So you agree that we need to change that vision?

02:41I do.

02:42Leave wokeness and go back to democracy.

02:44I think we need to foster freedom, right?

02:48Right.

02:48And that's why I use Belize as the example.

02:51Here is a great small country who they're trying to figure out, should we keep the king?

02:58Should we stay in the Caribbean Court of Justice?

03:00Should we revise our constitution?

03:03You know, and where's our embassy?

03:06Nowhere.

03:07Right.

03:07Where's Millennium Challenge pushing that same agenda you just talked about?

03:12So this reorganization of the State Department that you just mentioned under Marco Rubio now,

03:17so if you were his advisor, what were the three things that you would tell him

03:21in order to have our return on investment to be really high?

03:25Well, I think the first thing I would do is make sure,

03:29and this is one of the things that I tried to do as Assistant Secretary,

03:33is to make sure that the Assistant Secretary who has statutory authority

03:37to maintain constant oversight of that funding, both humanitarian and...

03:44Oversight.

03:45Yeah, oversight.

03:45Number two?

03:46And we don't.

03:48And I know it's fair to say, well, what do you mean you don't?

03:52And the, you know, I had to spend a million dollars to put together a database

03:56to pull it all together.

03:59So oversight of where the money is going.

04:01That's one.

04:01Number two?

04:02Oversight over where the money is going, who's spending it,

04:04and it doesn't matter whether it's in state or HHS

04:07because there's human rights and humanitarian funding all over the government.

04:11And so the first thing would be let's figure out where the money is going.

04:16All right.

04:16So you're telling me that we do not know as a government where the money is going?

04:20No, we don't.

04:23We're only spending taxpayers' money, all right?

04:25Right.

04:26But that's your power of the purse.

04:28If you don't know, then you don't have any effective oversight.

04:31You mean Congress, I'm sorry, or the State Department officials?

04:34I'm talking about this is a dual joint executive Congress thing.

04:38You have the power of the purse,

04:40and you have the right to see how the money is being spent,

04:43and you're not getting it.

04:45That's my point.

04:45And then that would be the most important advice you would give to the Secretary of State?

04:51Is make sure that there is at least one person, if not more,

04:56who has continuous oversight and can demand the oversight of that money.

05:03And I can tell you stories.

05:04I won't bother to burden the record now,

05:07but I basically faced absolute insubordination when I tried to get that.

05:13And Assistant Secretaries really don't have the authority to take personnel actions like that,

05:19but the fact of the matter is that I was told I didn't have any right to see the money.

05:27I don't want to overextend to my time.

05:29So, I now recognize Ranking Member Castor.

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