Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Gregory W Meeks (5th District of New York)
Washington, D.C. – Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, delivered the following opening remarks – as prepared – before the full House Foreign Affairs Committee for a hearing on “The Need for an Authorized State Department”:
Thank you, Chairman Mast, and thank you to our witnesses for joining us today.
As members of this Committee, it is our duty to reauthorize the State Department regularly, just as Congress does with respect to the Department of Defense. As Chairman in the 117th Congress, I made it a priority to pass the first State Department reauthorization in 18 years, doing so in a bipartisan way with then-Chairman McCaul. That’s because both Democrats and Republicans believed that it was in the best interest of the American people and U.S. national security for Congress to ensure our diplomatic and development professionals have all the tools they need to succeed.
So, while I appreciate that this hearing was called and agree with the need for Congress to regularly authorize the State Department, Mr. Chairman, I am afraid this committee’s actions this Congress have run counter to that goal. Afterall, how can we engage in a serious, bipartisan conversation about strengthening the State Department and other agencies when Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Secretary Rubio have eviscerated the very Department and instruments of national security we’re supposed to support, while not being called even once for a hearing before this Committee?
You can’t remodel a home after burning it to the ground. And Congress’ legislative role should not be to simply rubber-stamp the arsonists’ work.
This is a profound moment of shame for the Republican party, as its Members sit silently while Secretary Rubio allows Elon Musk and his army of teenagers – who have no foreign policy or even government expertise – to dismantle the very agencies they have supported in the past. The United States Agency for International Development, the US Agency for Global Media, the Millenium Challenge Corporation, just to name a few, have all been met with a hatchet job FOR NO REASON. Meanwhile Secretary Rubio and my Republican colleagues – who’ve in the past understood their value – fail to speak up or, worse, contort themselves to justify this administration’s actions. There is no greater demonstration of this incredible cowardice than Marco Rubio, who knows this is wrong, but would rather sit atop a kingdom of ash than defend the work he once praised.
I had hoped that Secretary Rubio would at least try to protect the Department, USAID and their workforces who’ve dedicated their lives to serving the American people. Instead, he stood by while Musk, Pete Marocco, and DOGE illegally gutted USAID – a statutory agency – and condemned millions of people around the world to disease, starvation, and death by slashing foreign assistance, forfeiting U.S. global leadership in the process.
The wanton destruction didn’t end with USAID or Pete Marocco’s exit. Most recently, Secretary Rubio gave this Committee just 25-minutes’ notice before announcing a sweeping dismantling of our soft power tools in the name of a State “reorganization.”
This is not reform, it’s abandoning decades of bipartisan support for centering human rights and democracy in our foreign policy – without consultation, without engagement, and without any regard for Congress’ constitutional role as a co-equal branch of government.
To this day, Secretary Rubio refuses to follow the law and consult with Congress. And we have no reason to believe that will change. In the weeks ahead, we fully expect him to endorse the next chapter of Project 2025: closing hundreds of critical offices and potentially dozens of overseas posts, gutting the Department’s workforce, and slashing the budget –all of which will leave America weaker and more isolated. China and Russia will continue to celebrate, as they have done every day of Donald Trump’s first 100 days.
So, while I am grateful to our witnesses for joining us today and for their many years of dedicated service to our country, I have to ask: why are we talking to private witnesses instead of demanding Secretary Rubio come before this Committee to defend his reckless actions?
And how can we expect any meaningful authorization process when my Republican colleagues have refused to speak out—even as this Administration destroys programs and policies they once championed?
I have a long track record of working with any Administration that wants to strengthen our national security and works in good faith towards that end. But this is not business as usual. Donald Trump has taken a wrecking ball to our foreign policy, treated our allies as adversaries and our adversaries as allies, threatened to invade some of those allies, and launched a trade war that is hurting our economy and constituents.
And in placating their would-be-king, my colleagues have abandoned all they’ve held sacred, whether for political expedience, fear of Donald Trump, or both.
I would love nothing more than a good-faith effort to reauthorize the State Department and I welcome discussions to that end. But to my Republican colleagues, you all must choose. Will you—as an independent branch of government—stand up to Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Marco Rubio? Or will you enable and support the most rapid, intentional dismantling of American soft power and influence in the history of this country?
If it’s the latter, then I fear this entire endeavor is meaningless.