Gregory Meeks Confronts Top Trump State Official Over Staffing Cuts At State Department

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) spoke about staffing cuts at the State Department as Undersecretary of State Allison Hooker testified in front of the committee.

Transcript

00:00And in that, I now recognize my friend and my colleague, the ranking member from New York, Representative Meeks.

00:07Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Undersecretary Hooker, for being here today.

00:14You've been given quite a job.

00:18Last week, your colleague, Michael Regas, told the committee that the regional bureaus and the U.S. diplomatic posts that you oversee

00:26would somehow fill all the gaps left by this administration's haphazard and short-sighted reorganization of the State Department

00:37and its unlawful dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

00:44Now, that would make sense if this were a reorganization in name only.

00:50If the goal were to empower the regional bureaus, we'd expect them to be staffed up and properly resourced.

01:00But that's not what's happening.

01:02Instead, Secretary Rubio fired 1,300 civil and foreign service officers across the department,

01:10squandering expertise which American taxpayers paid for and talent your bureaus now need.

01:19And rather than fund your work, this administration clawed back, with the help of my colleagues across the aisle,

01:27$8 billion in congressionally appropriated funds that was done in a bipartisan manner.

01:37Add that on top of your paltry budget request for next year.

01:42You're staring at an 85% hold in the State Department's wallet.

01:49The department keeps repeating the talking points about having 1,500 domestic office units.

01:56But that's not the real issue.

01:58The question isn't whether we have too many offices.

02:01It's whether we have the right capabilities.

02:04In the limited briefings we've received, no one has demonstrated that you do.

02:12We shouldn't confuse complexity with inefficiency.

02:16America's diplomatic apparatus is specialized, and it needs to be.

02:22Many of domestic operations are essential.

02:26They provide critical support to our missions overseas.

02:30Madam Undersecretary, you said in your confirmation hearing in April, and I quote,

02:37the United States requires a modern diplomatic corps that is ready to meet the challenges of a complex world, unquote.

02:46But I'm telling you, Madam Undersecretary, you've been set up to fail.

02:51This administration is asking you to do much more with much less.

02:56It's like being sent into a war zone with a water gun.

03:01You're expected to promote human rights without a Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

03:07You're expected to prevent conflict without a Conflict and Stabilization Operations Bureau.

03:14You're expected to investigate war crimes without an Office of Global Criminal Justice.

03:20And that's just the beginning.

03:21But this is more than a logistical challenge.

03:26It's a values problem.

03:29This administration has openly declared its hostility to the values that center our foreign policy

03:35and give us influence and credibility around the world.

03:40Instead of defending democracy,

03:43President Trump and the MAGA Republicans cheer on its erosion in Hungary.

03:47Instead of standing for the rule of law,

03:50they strike lucrative crypto deals in the Gulf.

03:54And instead of condemning coup attempts,

03:57they cozy up to those who lead them in places like Brazil.

04:02And U.S. leadership is in retreat.

04:05The president is pulling the United States from multilateral organizations

04:09and handing our empty chair to who?

04:13China.

04:14With UNESCO being the latest example.

04:17Our allies are issuing travel warnings not to come to the United States

04:21after seeing the administration's assault on international students

04:25and arbitrary roundups of people they think look suspicious.

04:29And American household incomes and the dollar are both dropping

04:33as the president wages nonsensical and self-defeating trade war with the world.

04:39Our adversaries are watching all of this and celebrating.

04:43They see a United States that is disarming itself strategically,

04:47diplomatically, and morally.

04:49President Trump's petty, chaotic leadership,

04:52after yet another Oval Office meeting with a foreign leader

04:55turned into tabloid fodder,

04:57is singling to the world that the United States foreign policy

05:00is not driven by values or national interests,

05:03but by a quid pro quo regime in service to one would-be king.

05:07Now is not the time to gut our diplomacy.

05:11Now is the time to strengthen it.

05:14But the Trump administration has no process, no vision, or strategy

05:19to compete and win on the global stage.

05:22And it certainly won't achieve our strategic foreign policy goals

05:26on a shoestring budget with a hollowed-out staff.

05:29This administration's best explanation for all of this,

05:32a slogan, America first, that will only leave America last.

05:38Madam Secretary, I hope you'll be able to provide more than just slogans today.

05:43Thank you, and I yield back my time.

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