Ranking Member DeLauro Remarks at Fiscal Year 2026 Department of State and Related Programs Budget Hearing

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Subcommittee’s fiscal year 2026 budget hearing for theDepartment of State and related programs:

Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Frankel. And it’s an honor to be here with the Chair of the Appropriations Committee, my dear friend. And I want to say thank you for holding this important hearing on the Trump Administration’s budget request for the Department of State.

Secretary Rubio, good afternoon. I welcome you to the House Appropriations Committee for your first budget hearing. Thank you for appearing before us today.

As you know, bipartisanship allows us to govern in the interest of the nation; however, I cannot thank you for your proposal to slash funding for the Department of State by $51.6 billion, an 84 percent cut to our ability to conduct diplomacy and save lives around the world. 

But before we talk about your request to suffocate your own Department next year, I want to talk about what is happening right now. 

Mr. Secretary, this Administration is dismantling programs that save lives and protect our national security for the sake of a tax cut for billionaires. It is recklessly and unlawfully freezing and stealing Congressionally-appropriated funds from agencies, programs, and services across the government. Congress holds the power of the purse. It is right there in the Constitution. Article I, Section 9, Clause 7. 

And while this Administration has engaged in the unrestrained destruction of institutions across our government, nothing compares to the human consequences of what is happening under your watch. I might add that we are, for 2025, we are in a continuing resolution, and we are following the 2024 budget. And there are directives in that budget. And if we are to follow the letter of the law, which is you pass it in the House, you pass it in the Senate, the President signs the legislation, and you have a law. And that law says that for 2025, we are going to move in the direction of the 2024 budget. That is not happening, and we need to question that. 

There is, as I pointed out, unrestrained destruction of institutions across our government. You followed the orders of unelected billionaire Elon Musk and oversaw the evisceration of USAID and a freeze on programs actively saving the lives of vulnerable people around the planet. 

Food for people on the verge of famine, already on ships, was halted. Administration of life-saving treatments for horrific diseases was stopped. Your actions have cost human lives already and will cost many more in the near and long-term future. It is despicable, it is shameful, and it is a stain on our nation that may never be fully erased. 

The funding freeze was made under the guise of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. But the American small farmers who feed millions around the world are not waste, and the human lives they support are not either. 

I am all for finding and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse – something Inspectors General Richardson and Martin, at State and USAID, respectively, were tasked with doing, before they were illegally purged in the dead of night. The Administration has not brought one allegation of fraud or misuse to this Committee either.

And Mr. Secretary, I know that I do not need to lecture you on what soft power is or how it works. You used to be well aware of how having the world on our side through diplomacy, cultural influence, and through our humanitarian role keeps Americans safe and our economy strong and growing. 

But your familiarity with the irreplaceable role of the institutions you oversee makes it even more baffling as to why this Administration has seemingly done everything in its power to estrange us from our allies and sow distrust of America around the world.

Insulting and abandoning our allies does not put America first. Cozying up to dictators and accepting lavish gifts from petrostates does not put America first. Taking food from the mouths of the most vulnerable people in the world – millions of whom are children – does not put America first.

When we are helping impoverished communities and nations treat diseases, when we are feeding starving children in conflict zones, and when we help ensure villages have drinkable water, we are using and gaining soft power. We do these things because they are the right thing to do. We also do these things because they are in our own interest. They build influence, our global standing, and strengthen our national security. When we retreat from the global stage, China and Russia fill in the gaps, and the world becomes a more dangerous place for Americans. Whose name is on the sack of flour? The door of the clinic? On the schoolbook? The United States of America – period. It must remain that way. Both parties, and you, understood that in the past. 

While we only have a few lines of political rhetoric masquerading as a budget to work with, this is what we do know about what you are proposing for the Department of State next year.

You create a slush fund for the President while abandoning our allies and partners around the world, with an 84 percent cut to diplomats and development experts. You cut educational and cultural exchanges by 93 percent. You cut support for people in the poorest countries in the world, depriving millions of clean water and sanitation, putting them at risk of death from cholera and diarrhea, and depriving them of food and shelter. 

You cut our ability to cooperate on narcotics control and law enforcement by over $1.2 billion, increasing the threats of transnational crime, terrorism, and drug and human trafficking.

This does not make America stronger, safer, or more prosperous. This Administration is putting billionaires and our adversaries first. Americans, our allies, and vulnerable people around the world will be worse off for it. 

As the leading Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, I assure you, we will not stop fighting to protect America’s interests – and against this Administration’s dangerous dismantling of our diplomatic and humanitarian efforts across the world. 

Thank you, and I look forward to your testimony. 

I yield back.

###