During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) asked Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker about the State Department's staffing plans.
00:00Representative Burchett. Please use it wisely. Will do. I won't squander it. Reggie Member Meeks.
00:07Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Undersecretary, both Secretary Rubio and Deputy Secretary Regas
00:15have said that the State Department's reorganization puts regional bureaus and posts
00:20in the lead after single-issue functional offices like Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Bureau,
00:27DRL, distorted foreign policy. They assured us that DRL's work isn't going away, but rather being
00:35transferred to regional bureaus. Now, I'll start out by saying I have serious concerns about that
00:41because DRL was one of those departments that has enjoyed bipartisan congressional support for decades
00:49where we not here heard any of the some of the things that are said now. Now, because some of
00:55the restrictions I have in time, I've got a few yes or no questions I would like to ask you
01:01so that I can really understand how you did this. Do you have a written plan for absorbing
01:11the work formerly done by DRL into the regional bureaus?
01:16Thank you, Chairman, Ranking Member, for that question. Each bureau is going to tailor its
01:26programs to meet the needs of the area. But my question is, do you have one now?
01:31Each regional bureau is formulating their plans for each of these approaches.
01:36So the answer to that is no. I have limited time. So the answer is that as of right now,
01:41you said there is no plan, right? There's nothing that you can provide now. But as of right now,
01:47there's no plan. Let me ask this question then. Did you consult senior DRL officials or stakeholders
02:00before making these changes?
02:07Sir, as Deputy Secretary Regas shared, there was great consultation taken throughout the
02:12Again, that's just a yes or no. Did you consult senior DRL officials or stakeholders
02:20before making these changes? Because it seems to me there's no plan now.
02:24So I guess the answer has to be that you have not. And some of them are gone. So to make sure
02:35that you're doing something serious, as far as policy is concerned, to continue that work,
02:41you're already handicapped. If there's no plan now, you just decided we're going to cut it. You
02:47didn't make a decision. There was no determination that it was no need for it. You absorbed it. There
02:53was no consultation with senior DRL officials or stakeholders before deciding to make these
02:59changes. So there's nothing that you can provide because we have oversight committee to this committee
03:05so that we can look to see whether there was something intelligently done or not.
03:11Well, let me ask this question. Did you absorb any staff formally assigned to DRL into the regional bureaus?
03:19I'm happy to get back to you with a list of officers that are going to be performing these duties going forward.
03:25So I have to make the presumption that none of the individuals who have the
03:31expertise, who knew what was going on with reference to DRL, none of them have been absorbed.
03:37So I have to make the presumption that none of the individuals who have the expertise, who knew what was going on with reference to DRL, none of them have been absorbed.
03:47And so therefore there is a great number of a brain drain that has taken place as a result of the 1,300 people at the state department that was left on.
03:54So now let me move on because time is running out. In your opening statement, you said when lines of the state department are going to be
04:02and when lines of responsibility blur and decision making is spread across multiple actors, it becomes harder to ensure that the department's work is fully aligned with the priorities of elected leadership.
04:14Do you think government agencies should reflect the priorities of elected leaders? Yes or no?
04:34Yes. And that's because elected leaders represent the will of the American people. Is that correct?
04:46That's correct. Yes. So, Mr. Chairman, I'm going to ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a July 18th New York Times article
04:54describing a cable from Secretary Rubio instructing the department's workforce to, and I quote,
05:01avoid opinion on the fairness or integrity of an electoral process.
05:06Its legitimacy of the democratic values of the country are in question.
05:12That's ordered.
05:14And I see that my time is just about expired, so I will give you additional questions, Madam Secretary,
05:19because I have a bunch more about the draft, who did it, and who, you know, whether it was you, whether it was Secretary,
05:25or you had any part of it, as well as some other things.
05:29So I have much more to talk to you about.
05:32And hopefully, when our office sends a letter or a phone call to request to have these dialogues and conversations with you,
05:39that we will get a response back, because we do have oversight responsibilities as being a member of the United States Congress
05:49and the Foreign Affairs Committee, both Democrats, both Republicans and Democrats have that responsibility.
