Pramila Jayapal Skewers Top Trump Official Over Staffing Cuts At The State Department

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) asked Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker about the State Department's staffing plans.

Transcript

00:00Senator Jayapal. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for being here, Madam Undersecretary.

00:05In your confirmation hearing, you stated that China was trying to, quote, reshape the global

00:10order. In your opinion, is it in our national interest to have our American bilateral and

00:17multilateral relationships overtaken by China? I would disagree with the premise that they are.

00:25I'm just asking you in your opinion. I assume the answer is no, that it's not in our interest. And

00:31I agree with you. But in fact, that is exactly what the Trump administration is allowing to happen

00:37with all the cuts to USAID funding. As we slash foreign assistance, China is stepping up its

00:43investments in the Silk Road for too many countries. It's becoming the only place to turn to backfill

00:50previous U.S. investments. And General Michael Langley, the commander of U.S. Africa Command,

00:56stated that China is, quote, trying to replicate specific USAID programs in Africa that the United

01:03States has cut and that this trend has been seen globally. Madam Undersecretary, are you aware of

01:09how the USAID cuts and Trump's isolationism have, have what they've done to America's and China's

01:15respect of global favorability? Congresswoman, I would disagree with the premise of multiple

01:21components of your statement. Do you know what's happened to U.S. favorability relative to China's

01:26favorability? In fact, we've had a great response in some of our countries that we're providing aid that

01:33we're moving from a dependency relationship. Do you have any numbers for me? See, well, I can tell you

01:40that we're continuing our PEPFAR life-saving programs. I'm asking about favorability. Are you

01:45aware that in January of 2024, a year before Trump came into office, the U.S. favorability rating

01:51was above 20 and China was in negative territory? And at the end of May, after just five months of

01:57Trump coming into office, China had a net favorability of 8.8 compared to negative 1.5 for

02:06the United States. Were you aware of that? I'm not sure what the sources of your numbers are. So you're

02:11not aware of that? I'm not aware of the sources of your numbers. Let me read you some statistics about

02:16how your administration's cuts will increase Chinese influence around the globe. Because of

02:22these cuts, Chinese investments in assistance programs will now surpass American investments

02:28in 40 more countries. China will now operate 16 more diplomatic posts abroad than the United

02:35States. And if the president's budget request is enacted into law, and the U.S. fails to pay its

02:42U.N. assessed contributions, China would actually be the biggest contributor to the U.N. regular budget

02:47and U.N. peacekeeping operations. Is this what making America great again means to you, ceding

02:54America's global leadership in the world to China? Congresswoman, at our funding currently,

03:01we remain the world's largest donor of aid. Next to the next 10 countries, we are still the greatest

03:08provider. Madam Under Secretary, you may want to look at those statistics that I sent you and look at what

03:14these cuts mean. Would you agree that Mandarin language skills are a valuable tool for U.S. diplomats

03:21working on China and strategic competition issues? It's not a hard question, Madam Under Secretary.

03:30I'm still wondering if we're going to be able to respond to some of the other statements.

03:34It's my time, so you are welcome to send me a written response, but I'm asking you about Mandarin

03:38language skills. Do you think they're valuable? We have Mandarin language skills of the Department of State,

03:44yes. So you think they're valuable? Yes. And the Department just fired over 1,300 staff to meet an

03:52arbitrary firing target. Do you know what percent of the Department's total Mandarin language capacity

03:58was lost in that RIF? Congresswoman, the reorganization was not arbitrary, nor was it haphazard. Do you know how

04:08many of the Department's total Mandarin language capacity was lost in the RIF? I'm unaware of that.

04:15So you don't know even how we're staffing our relationship with China, and you're the Under Secretary

04:22of State for Political Affairs. Can you at least tell me if language skills, in this case Mandarin,

04:27weigh into the Department's evaluation of individual staff that were RIFed?

04:31Thank you, Congresswoman, for that question. The Office of China Affairs falls under my purview.

04:41And you don't know how many, do you know how many people we have that speak Mandarin now?

04:48I'm responsible for the diplomacy that is conducted out of the Office of China.

04:52And you think diplomacy can be done without people that speak the skills?

04:55And also the Embassy. And I have confidence in our training programs at the Department of State.

05:02Sounds like you're not really aware of what skills we have to actually build that relationship.

05:07Time has expired. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

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Transcript

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