Kweisi Mfume Presses Top Trump Official About Anti-DEI Policies

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing earlier this month, Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) asked State Department Assistant Secretary of Administration José Cunningham about the Trump administration's anti-DEI policies.

Transcript

00:00We'll now recognize, for five minutes, Representative M. Fiume.

00:07Congressman.

00:08Thank you very much.

00:10Mr. Cunningham, I want to ask you a couple of real simple questions and try to get your honest reaction here.

00:18As you know, this past Friday, the State Department laid off over 1,300 employees,

00:27including 1,100 of which were civil service employees and 246 which were foreign service officers.

00:38That figure is in addition to the roughly 1,600 employees who have left the agency since January,

00:47many of whom will say that they left under duress.

00:50At the same time, the Foreign Service Institute has indefinitely postponed any and all promotions,

00:59holding up promotions and shutting the entry point for new foreign service officers to get in.

01:07So I'm disturbed by the sheer number of employees fired,

01:11but also by the seemingly indiscriminate nature and manner of those firings.

01:19If I'm incorrect, I certainly would welcome your comments on some of this.

01:23I'm concerned also about the loss of expertise from the Civil Service and Foreign Service employees

01:30that had dedicated their lives, quite frankly, to serving this government,

01:35this nation and the American people.

01:39So can you, for the sake of the committee here, on the record,

01:43give us a sense of what you've done since being there to ensure that the recent staff reductions

01:50at the State Department will not harm, will not harm,

01:55the ability of the United States to engage in important diplomatic work?

02:00Thank you, Congressman.

02:04I can assure you right from the very start that what we're doing will not disturb the important mission that we have.

02:12I would welcome the opportunity just to talk to you a little bit about how that America First foreign policy is in place

02:22and how that relates to the reorganization as well as the reduction in force that you were so specific about.

02:29When Secretary Rubio came to office, he pledged that we were going to make foreign policy

02:35the purview of our ambassadors, of our embassies, of our operations overseas.

02:42And in order to support that overseas element,

02:46we decided that we needed to streamline and consolidate our operations here in Washington, D.C.

02:52And through the reorganization as well as the attendant reduction in forces, we were able to do that.

02:57And indeed, if you look at the...

03:00Well, let me reclaim my time here. I don't have that much of it.

03:02Secretary Rubio was before this full committee, and we entertained a number of State Department persons,

03:10the last of which was just a couple of days ago.

03:13I want to know, though, have you completed, since you're saying this will not impact negatively,

03:17have you completed an assessment of the impact and the loss of expertise from the State Department?

03:26Officials that have, as I said before, been fired or let go this year.

03:30That's a tremendous brain trust, a tremendous wealth of experience.

03:34And so when you extrapolate that out of an existing workforce,

03:38I need to get some idea of what assurances were made or what assessment was done

03:45to be able to say that there is no impact.

03:49Congressman, the assessment to actually implement the reorganization

03:55and the attendant reduction in force was done long in advance.

03:59And, of course, we executed on that on Friday.

04:03It would be short-sighted of me to say that we've already done an assessment

04:06of the impact on what happened on Friday just a few days later, less than a week since that.

04:14I can assure you that there are plenty of us.

04:16In fact, even later this afternoon when I get back to the building,

04:18we're having our second meeting of a group of folks who were responsible

04:24for the implementation of the reorganization to make sure

04:28that we're looking at any potential anomalies that have come to our attention.

04:32Good, and I hope that you would get back to us with those anomalies.

04:34Or to say that there were none.

04:36Or to say that this assessment, once it is done, shows no negative impact.

04:42Mr. Cunningham, 36 months ago, the Government Accounting Office released four recommendations,

04:48all of which were aimed at improving diversity, equity, and inclusion,

04:54as well as accessibility in the State Department's workforce.

04:58The previous administration made some progress in addressing those,

05:02but all those recommendations, four of them remain open.

05:06Is there any plan in place by Secretary Rubio or yourself or others

05:12to address the Government Accounting Office's recommendations?

05:16Or since it is listed as DEI, can we assume that under this leadership

05:21at the State Department and the White House that they are dead?

05:25Under this administration, sir, we have eliminated diversity

05:31and inclusion initiatives throughout government.

05:33That includes the State Department.

05:35We have now moved to an entirely merit-based system

05:40that looks at skill sets, language capabilities, and experience

05:44in our identification, recruitment, hiring, and promotion,

05:50and retirement of our workforce on both the civil service side

05:54as well as the foreign service side.

05:56I understand that my time is expiring,

05:58but I'd be less than honest if I didn't say I don't know how

06:01a less diverse workforce will affect the efforts of the United States

06:07to engage with the vast amount of different peoples and cultures

06:11that are relevant to our national interests.

06:13I don't know how we do that when we become less diverse.

06:16I yield back, Mr. Chairman.

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Transcript

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