Mike Lawler Questions Top State Department Official About Ending Funding To Antisemitic Entities

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At Tuesday's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) questioned Michael Rigas, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources at the State Department.

Transcript

00:00Mr. Chairman, Deputy Secretary, Secretary Rubio, OMB, Director Vaught, and Administration and

00:07officials have repeatedly asserted to Congress that funding is not being cut or frozen for the

00:12procurement and delivery of American-made ready-to-use therapeutic foods. However, as of

00:19today, as I understand it, no RUTF orders have been processed this year, and the two non-profit

00:27manufacturers who make these products, which are sourced from 27 states across the U.S.,

00:33are in danger of going out of business. Can you provide me with an update on the status

00:37of moving these orders forward? Thank you for that question, Congressman. I regret I'm

00:43not familiar with this particular issue, but I'd be happy to take it on board, look into

00:47it, and get your response. Okay. If you can do so expeditiously, that would be helpful. I will do so, sir. Thank you.

00:56What is the status of the State Department's Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation

01:01Efforts? So that office is we're still processing SIV visas that for under Chief of Mission Authority.

01:12That work like the work of a lot of that's being done at the State Department now under

01:16our reorganization is being moved to the regional bureaus. So it's being moved from that the care

01:23regulations are being moved to the regional South Central Asia desk. My understanding is

01:28we've admitted about 1200 people under this program since the beginning of the administration,

01:34and that work, you know, the processing of those visas continues. So you expect that that

01:39program under the auspices of the regional desk will continue moving forward? Yes, it is continuing

01:49under the South Central Asia desks. Yeah. Okay. Do you see any, has there been any discussion of changes

01:56to the actual approval of visas for Afghanistan interpreters and others that helped us during the

02:05Afghanistan war moving forward? Or do you see the program largely continuing as is? My understanding

02:13is that about 400,000 people have been admitted with SIVs from Afghanistan. And that the sort of the so

02:23called easy cases have kind of made their way through and there are sort of a number of hard cases at the end

02:29of people who, you know, did not did not or could not pass vetting to be admitted into the United States.

02:35And so I think it's down to harder cases now. So I don't know that we're going to see the kinds of

02:40numbers we've seen previously admitted, but the the review work continues.

02:47One of the things that was obviously a big concern with USAID was some of the funding that went to

02:55different projects or entities that, you know, on the face, we would not support, for instance,

03:04an anti-Semitic rapper who got $3 million to promote anti-Israeli rap songs in Gaza and the West Bank.

03:13As well as obviously funding that previously went to UNRWA on the work that they did to undermine

03:20and foment hate and anti-Semitism and teach Palestinian students to hate Jews and, frankly,

03:30want to kill Jews, which is part of why we saw October 7th happen. What is it that the State

03:37Department is doing now to make sure that that type of funding does not occur ever again?

03:46And two, obviously, with the change in how we're getting humanitarian assistance into Gaza,

03:55how do you see that functioning?

03:56So number one, I think the the elimination of USAID as a foreign aid institution, I think,

04:03is was step one to that. Number two was the creation of the America First Opportunity Fund,

04:09which is what the administration has proposed in its FY 26 budget to ensure democratic accountability

04:16and how foreign assistance funds are being distributed. You look at this long list of USAID

04:22funds that I think kind of shocked the public conscience about how public taxpayer dollars were

04:26being spent. And you can't really answer the question who authorized that or who approved it or

04:32there was no one that you could really hold it. I mean, you could technically hold the USAID

04:36administrator accountable for that, but they're going to say, I never saw that or never approved it.

04:41With the America First Opportunity Fund, this is done at the discretion of the secretary

04:47under the president's authority as the, you know, the chief foreign policy officer

04:53of the United States. And he's someone who's before the press every single day. They cannot you can be

04:58asked questions by the public. I mentioned earlier, there's, you know, congressional oversight as well.

05:03The inspector, the inspector general can also review how monies are being spent. So I think there's

05:09going to be the questions about accountability. I think there is, there are multiple layers of

05:16accountability for how that money is spent. And the ultimate accountability is the American voter,

05:22right? They can say, I don't like how this money was spent, or I do. Thanks. I yield back.

05:28Sure not recognized.

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