Rosa DeLauro Presses Marco Rubio About 'Stolen' Money And Food Aid 'Rotting' In Warehouses

At a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) spoke to Sec. Marco Rubio about food aid.

Transcript

00:00Thank you Mr. Chairman, just a note it would appear that in terms of what the

00:08estimate is in terms of money that has been impounded or if you will stolen

00:13this is congressionally directed money it's about 40 billion dollars in

00:17development and humanitarian funds this is from State Department USAID this money

00:22not being spent. Secretary we need to have an accounting of what those what has

00:29been cut what has been terminated and what may be being restored we asked Mr.

00:35Morocco several weeks ago to let us know about what was cut what were the the

00:41criteria for making the cuts and today we this is again several weeks ago we have

00:46not heard one word so this committee would like to know that before dealing

00:50with an appropriations bill. Mr. Secretary warehouse is full of food rations that

00:55could feed millions including the entire population of Gaza for a month and a

00:59half are rotting in warehouses because of this administration's decision to gut US

01:04foreign aid structure. Some of the food supply will be incinerated will expire as

01:08soon as July while children across the world are starving. The administration's

01:13haphazard cancellation of contracts and freezing of funds have stopped food aid

01:17from getting to the most vulnerable people. World Food Program director Cindy

01:22McCain called me they ran out of food at WFP and the the and the Israelis would not

01:29open the gates so the the food is there rotting. This food is grown by US producers

01:36paid for by American taxpayers and and really I don't know how the

01:40administration justifies allowing this food to rot while civilians are starving.

01:45Can you commit to us to ensuring that food aid will not go to waste in

01:49warehouses and will instead be distributed to people in need as directed

01:54by the Congress? Will you ensure this food aid moves as quickly as possible to

01:58its intended destinations? Well you just outlined the answer is yes because you

02:03just highlighted the impediment was not us. We're not telling them they can't

02:06distribute the food. The impediment you pointed out that Cindy McCain told you

02:09about was that some government was standing in the way and that's been part of the

02:12conversations that I was speaking about with Mr. Quigley. With Mr. Quigley you were

02:15doing that but that that that really gets to the question of how strong the US is

02:21going to be in leading the humanitarian assistance that needs to get into Gaza

02:26and some of these other places. That is a leadership role. That is a role for the

02:31Secretary of State and as a role for this for this administration. And with regard to

02:36UNRWA, 1949 set up to be there for dealing to the Palestinians only meant to be

02:43temporary. It has been the major source the major source of distribution of food

02:50and also with education and health care services. I would like to ask you tell us

02:55your alternatives. To date we have not any had any alternatives. Well we would

03:00love to find an alternative. We need to find an alternative. We're actively

03:03looking if not to build an alternative with our regional partners but it's not

03:06going to be a group that's controlled by Hamas and has a bunch of the matter is

03:09gutter is controlled by, gutter deals with Hamas. Folks, thank you. Thank you Mr. Laura.