'You Just Fired Them': Pramila Jayapal Confronts State Department Official On Mass Layoffs

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) spoke about layoffs at the State Department.

Transcript

00:00Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you Deputy Secretary Regas for being here.

00:04Before coming for Congress I worked for a Seattle-based non-profit that was one of the largest

00:10implementing global health issues around the world. And in our state, Washington state,

00:15global health is a leading industry. It creates tens of thousands of jobs right there at home.

00:21It generates billions of dollars for our economy and the destruction of USAID and the massive cuts

00:28that we've seen to research and science and global health I believe are really weakening our soft power

00:36abilities through global development and I think they're leaving Americans vulnerable to the spread

00:42of disease that does not know any boundaries. Thousands of people in my district have worked

00:48for state or for programs that receive that funding and they've devoted their lives to putting America

00:54first but you fired them. You fired them. Not based on merit, not based on skills, not based on work

01:00history, not by looking at if there was anywhere else in the State Department that these career civil

01:05servants could be. You just fired them because you had a 15% staff firing target. One of them speaks

01:13multiple languages, had an onward assignment to promote U.S. businesses and strengthen our critical

01:19mineral supply chain. Another one was sent back after spending her entire life devoted to humanitarian

01:26assistance work in Afghanistan, Sudan, the Middle East, some of the toughest regions in the world

01:31where we desperately will need translators, people with bilingual experience. Another one served in war

01:37zones in the Middle East and was fired one week away from qualifying for her pension after nearly 20 years

01:46of service. It is stunning to me to see how these career civil servants have been treated by your

01:53administration and on top of that the administration's budget request slashes global health spending by

01:59almost two-thirds and a recent study estimates that in 10 years these cuts could cause 14 million

02:06preventable deaths. 14 million. I've worked all over the world, lived all over the world and seen the power

02:13that the United States builds by the work that we do in other countries. I want to remind any public

02:19that may be watching that we spend less than a fraction of a percent of our budget on foreign

02:25assistance. In fact sometimes I go out and people say you spend too much money and I say great you tell

02:29me what you think we spend. Usually they say around 20%. I say you tell me what you think we should spend and

02:34I will do that. I will do that number and you're laughing because you know that what people say back to me is spend 10%

02:42if you just spend 10% I would do that. I'm like great I'll take it because the work we do through

02:49these programs is so important and the skills and the talent of our public servants is so incredible.

02:57The average taxpayer Mr. Regas spends 18 cents per day to fund USAID. That's funding that saved over 90

03:07million lives and prevented outbreaks that would have threatened American lives and so I guess I just

03:13want to know do you understand how your cuts are going to make Americans less safe? So as I noted

03:19earlier this the secretary has exempted life-saving humanitarian assistance from the foreign aid review

03:26so that kind of aid will continue but as I also mentioned we need to have a graduation strategy for

03:32countries for whom we're providing this kind of assistance whether it's one year three years five

03:37years like when is when are they going to have the capacity to be able to administer these programs

03:42themselves? We've seen that with our uh FY26 budget request for PEPFAR which is let me stop you there

03:49just for a second to say that life-saving aid alone first of all it's not flowing the way that we thought

03:55it was going to flow when the secretary said that secondly you know it's not enough if you listen to the

04:00experts life-saving is very different than disease prevention I've worked on disease prevention for

04:05a long time when a disease breaks out what you need to know is that there is a response immediately

04:12and the work of USAID took disease prevention response times on outbreaks from two weeks to two days

04:20that two weeks is a critical moment for us to be able to stop those diseases from spreading

04:26and we're in a situation now where we can't even analyze samples that come to us from other countries

04:32because they're being put through all kinds of other cuts at the CDC at other agencies and so it's

04:38it's simply just not the case that life-saving is enough I have 19 seconds so I want to turn to

04:43the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation how many sites does Gaza does GF uh GHF operate do you know? I am I do not know

04:51that's under your jurisdiction your resources it's four how many square miles is Gaza do you know?

04:56I do not guess what it's over 140 square miles six times the size of Manhattan do you know how

05:03often those sites are open? I do not they are barely open Mr. Regas this is not the way to get aid to

05:11people in Gaza and if you're going to be here over personnel and operations I would ask that you know the

05:18details of what you are actually overseeing and ask the experts to come in and help you because whatever

05:25people say about UNRWA we were delivering aid to the people that needed it. Representative Vice is now recognized.

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