At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) questioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
00:03During your confirmation hearing, you stated preventing crisis is a lot cheaper and a lot better than dealing with a crisis after the fact, which I agree wholeheartedly.
00:14In 2021, the State Department's budget was roughly $41 billion.
00:21Today, in 2025, the budget has almost doubled to $81.67 billion.
00:27Is our world safer over the last four years than it was when Trump was first in office?
00:38Is it safer today than it was?
00:40No, no. Before Trump came back, the last four years, underneath Biden's administration, the State Department almost doubled in their appropriated funds.
00:52Well, I think over those four years, did we become a safer nation? Did the world become safer?
00:56No, I don't think during the – I think the last four years have become more destabilizing.
00:59Right.
01:00Assign blame where one may want to, but the world is less stable.
01:03We have an all-out conflict that at any given moment threatens to spiral into a broader one in the Middle East.
01:08We have the Russia-Ukraine war that started in 2022 and has continued to this present day.
01:13We've shown Russia – I'm sorry, China is becoming increasingly aggressive in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the South China Sea, against both the Philippines, Taiwan, and other claimants in the region.
01:25So, yeah, I mean – and by the way, we experienced a mass migration crisis, not just here in the Western Hemisphere, but also because of what's happened in Africa and the Middle East and Europe.
01:37So, for all those reasons, no, we're not safer.
01:39So, it's safe to say that we threw money at it and it didn't help.
01:43And so, now that we're trying to get it back under control, for some reason, the Democrats are throwing an absolute, as I would say, ring-tail fit because we're doing better with the money we sent.
01:55There's no room to cut.
01:56We've doubled their budget in four years.
02:00And we have wars upon wars and rumors on rumors of wars.
02:05We have Haiti.
02:06That's absolutely a crap show.
02:08We have China that has increased their influence all around our borders.
02:13And all – I mean, literally, if you start looking at their influence in Canada and Mexico and all over Central and South America, it hasn't worked.
02:22We have Africa that is a complete mess.
02:27We have a war going on in Ukraine.
02:32I'm sure that, you know, that wouldn't have happened if we actually had strong leadership there.
02:39We have a war going on in Israel.
02:43And what have we done?
02:44We've thrown money at what?
02:46Going back to the chairman's point of view about USAID, $73 million spent on DEI.
02:58$73 million spent on DEI last year because it made us safer?
03:09Are we serious?
03:10I mean, we have a $37 trillion debt.
03:18When are we going to start cutting?
03:21At what area are we going to start cutting?
03:24And now all of a sudden we're trying to actually make changes and refocus on mission statement?
03:31Sir, I appreciate what you're trying to do.
03:34Can you kind of walk me through what your end goal is?
03:37Well, first of all, in the aid portion of it, these are some of the contracts we canceled.
03:43I can't go through all of them and people would say what they want.
03:45But some of them make no sense to me.
03:47I mean, I say a lot of them make no sense.
03:49Well, I mean, for example, $32 million to the Prague Civil Society Center.
03:56I don't know what that is.
03:57I mean, obviously we looked at the contract and we didn't approve it.
03:59But it didn't make a lot of sense to me.
04:01$14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia.
04:04I'm sure that improving public procurement in Serbia is not.
04:07Maybe it's a really good thing.
04:09But I don't know if that's in our national interest to put that kind of money into that.
04:12And that's the kinds of programs that we're talking about.
04:14It's not all the outrageous things.
04:16There are other things that are involved in this that you look at and say,
04:19okay, well, maybe this is a worthy program, but not for us.
04:22It's not something that we should be.
04:23$1.5 million for voter confidence in Liberia.
04:27$14 million for social cohesion in Mali.
04:31$2.5 million for inclusive democracies in southern Africa.
04:36$47 million for something called improving learning outcomes in Asia.
04:39Again, these things sound really good, I guess.
04:41I mean, as noble causes.
04:42But can we continue to afford to prioritize these sorts of projects
04:45when we have so many other needs, both domestically and abroad?
04:48And so our hope is to bring about some sanity to how this money is spent
04:52so that when people say we're still spending more money than anybody in the world on foreign aid,
04:56but it is being directed in a way that makes sense,
04:58that's actually furthering our national interest.
05:00And that's what we hope to be able to do.
05:02And that's really the end goal here.
05:04It's not so much a cutting exercise.
05:06There may be savings involved.
05:07But the more important thing is that we get better outcomes from it,
05:10that we feel like our foreign aid and our giving is aligned
05:13with our foreign policy objectives in a specific region, in a specific country.
05:17I think you said it best, national security interest,
05:20in words that maybe my colleagues from the other side wouldn't like to hear,
05:24but America first.
05:26Is it in our interest or is it not in our interest?
05:28And we're throwing so much wasteful taxpayer dollars out the door
05:32that even the taxpayers want accountability, in which they should.
05:37And that is what this administration is bringing, and that's what you're bringing.
05:41Now, actually, I don't know if my time's almost up or not
05:45because everybody's been going way over.
05:46It is.
05:47No, everybody else has been going way over.
05:49And so I just want to say, what's the difference between a visa and LPR?
05:55An LPR is someone who's admitted into the country.
05:58A legal permanent residence?
05:59Right.
05:59And a visa is what?
06:01A visa is a guest.
06:02A guest, right.
06:03They're treated a little bit different underneath.
06:05Well, they're actually treated different from the very beginning
06:07because we deny visas every day all over the world for all kinds of reasons.
06:11But I guess there's this attitude that once you get a visa,
06:13now you've been enshrined with some sort of privilege that is unrevocable.
06:18And the truth of the matter is, we should be able to, we will continue to,
06:22if you were going to do things that we knew you were going to do it,
06:25we wouldn't let you into this country.
06:27If you do it once you're here, we're going to take away the visa.
06:29You're a guest.
06:30That's right.
06:30One thing I want to add is I have a special interest in Haiti.
06:37My family and our companies, prior to me getting into Congress
06:40and after coming into Congress, have invested a lot into missions throughout Haiti.
06:47And it's becoming a failed state.
06:50I would really like to work with your office
06:54and seeing how we can assist through individuals that we have contacts with
07:01with ways that we might be able to assist on going forward
07:04and putting, hopefully, the right people in place.
07:07I've literally spent years dealing with Haiti.
07:12And I hate to say it's a failed state, but it will be.
07:17And who's going to backfill that is going to be China.
07:19And so we'd really like to work with you moving forward on that, sir.
07:24Yeah, absolutely.
07:26And I agree, Senator Mullen.
07:27We don't talk enough about Haiti.
07:29It's in our backyard.
07:30And it really is not becoming a failed state.
