00:04I just want to remind the chairman that our president just is trying to accept a $400 million plane from a country that funds Hamas.
00:13Okay.
00:14With that said, this has been a bad day for the women.
00:18You've already nixed education and birth control.
00:22I do want to ask you about Women, Peace, and Security.
00:25That's an act that President Trump signed into law.
00:28You were a co-sponsor.
00:29Also, the WE Act, which is an economic empowerment act that was actually championed by Ivanka Trump.
00:36And it's rooted in a recognition that WPS, the participation is essential to have women in peace talks for stability.
00:48And that's because women bear the brunt of war in so many different ways from men.
00:52Not that men are not affected by war, but we're talking about sexual violence, trafficking, widowed, forced to become breadwinners and taking over new responsibilities, becoming refugees.
01:06And so when it comes to trying to figure out what to do, it's very important to have women at the table.
01:12The office, the secretary's office, had what's called the Office of Global Women's Issues in order to implement this law.
01:24What worries me right now is, although it looks like your intentions are to scatter this program, but not have a central office with you that's going to oversee this.
01:39I think that would be a mistake, and I just, I want to just ask you if you could, if we can discuss that.
01:46Because I can tell you, I've spent a lot of time on this issue, and I think it's very, very important that you do not dismantle that particular office.
01:54Yeah, no, and I will engage with you.
01:55I know it's important, and I share your commitment on it because I sponsored that and supported that bill as well.
02:00So I think the question really is, do we need to have a bureau that that's all it does from a global perspective,
02:05or is that a function that we should insist each of our regional bureaus prioritize and have someone assigned to working that?
02:11Because I do think that while the challenges women face are global, they are different in different parts of the world and in different regions.
02:17I assure you, the challenges being faced in the European continent and women are very different than the challenges that they probably face in the Indo-Pacific and or in the African continent or somewhere else.
02:28And so I think that what you're, I'm trying to paraphrase, what you're saying is you want to make sure that the issue doesn't lose focus because it no longer has a centralized office.
02:37I hope I can convince you by interacting with you that we can stay committed to the goal but do so at the regional, making it a regional priority as opposed to a one-size goal.
02:47Okay, well, I hope we can agree to this because I don't want you to lose your staff, and I don't want you to lose your staff on all these programs until we can together work and see what's best moving our country forward.
02:58And with that, I'm just going to put some letters into the record, Mr. Chair.
03:03We have a bunch of questions for you.
03:05I know you've been traveling.
03:06I hope you can get to them, and if I can put them in.
