Reporter Presses Tammy Bruce Over The 'Cost To Shut Down USAID For The Taxpayer'

State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked about USAID during a press briefing.

Transcript

00:00MS NAUERT- Yes, go ahead.

00:01Thanks, Tommy.

00:02I just want to come back to USAID, given that the official closure of it happened

00:06this week.

00:07MS NAUERT- Sure.

00:08Will State or the Administration be releasing a breakdown of how much it has

00:12cost to shut down USAID for the taxpayer to be able to see that?

00:17For example, how much does it cost to bring some 2,000 USAID officers back from the field

00:24to the U.S., including their family members?

00:27How much does it cost to do payment settlements for contracts and grants?

00:32How much does it cost to sever local staff, et cetera?

00:35MS NAUERT- I love that there's now questions about how much things cost.

00:38We are not used to those kinds of questions.

00:40I would – well, I am not – I don't direct the nature of – the choices that are made

00:46about what's conveyed, but I think that what obviously has underlied all of this and what

00:51we know when it comes to the saving of money is that we are saving Americans a lot of money

00:57and I know it's going to be in the interest, as I will argue, to share with the American

01:02people.

01:03And we tend to share how much money we are saving them.

01:06Now, in the midst of us doing our work, there's also expenditures.

01:11There always is.

01:12So it costs money to run this building, as we are also saving money in other ways with

01:16things that were wasteful programs.

01:18So we will – certainly the American people will see the results of the fruitfulness of

01:23this work.

01:24Will that – will that part be public or not?

01:26MS NAUERT- Well, I think certainly as they've been public in the past, certainly the Trump

01:31administration is public about money that's already been saved through a variety of work,

01:35including Doja's work.

01:36I don't – I don't know how that will look and I'm not going to get ahead of that.

01:41But I would think that, yes, obviously they're going to be proud of the nature of the money

01:46that is saved.

01:47And in order to make sure the American people know what that effort has gotten to us.