Ranking Member DeLauro Remarks: Fiscal Year 2027 State, Foreign Operations and Related Agencies Subcommittee Markup

-- As Prepared for Delivery --

I thank the Chairman, and Ranking Member Frankel for their work on this bill.

I also want to thank the subcommittee staff, Erin Kolodjeski, Ed Etzkorn, and Laurie Mignone on the minority, and their counterparts on the majority as well for all their hard work.

This bill continues the Trump administration’s abdication of American global leadership. It cuts humanitarian assistance, slashes global health programs, reneges on our commitments to our partners, and surrenders global influence to our adversaries.

Since he took office, President Trump has stumbled from one self-created international crisis to another. 

He dismantled much of our foreign policy and development infrastructure, leaving partners scrambling, and our diplomats--already stretched too thin--struggling to explain why the United States would abandon its commitments.

He began a trade war with our closest allies, raising prices for American consumers and isolating us on the international stage. 

He dismantled USAID, severing lifelines of food and medical aid around the world, and leading to a catastrophic death toll around the world.

He openly threatened to invade Greenland, a threat which our closest NATO allies took so seriously that they made physical preparations to defend against a U.S. military operation. 

He has made a policy of extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean and Pacific, blowing up fishing boats and then accusing the people he killed of smuggling drugs, while presenting no evidence. 

And he started a war with Iran that has sent gas prices skyrocketing by 40 percent, and has no discernible objective, no strategic vision, and no end in sight.

The Trump Doctrine is failure followed by failure, alienating our allies while aiding our adversaries. This bill continues that pattern.

This bill does not provide any funding for the UN Regular Budget, abandoning one of the longest-standing institutions devoted to global peace. Undermining the UN only erodes our global influence. It also short-changes American businesses, who receive upwards of $2.1 billion in UN contracts, which is more than our dues.

This bill cuts funding for global health programs, particularly in the areas of reproductive health and global health security, making us more vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks that originate abroad. Pandemics do not respect international borders. It is in our best interest to prevent and contain them before they reach our shores. But these cuts impede our ability to do that.

The bill threatens women’s health around the globe, blocking any funds from going to the UN Population Fund. UNFPA is dedicated to reducing maternal mortality including working to eliminate obstetric fistula – an issue I care deeply about, preventing gender-based violence, and extending family planning to women and girls everywhere. By failing to provide any funding for UNFPA, the conditions under which millions of women around the world live will only become worse. Eliminating this funding is a moral failure.

The bill also eliminates all funding for the U.S. Institute for Peace, the Inter-American Foundation, and the U.S. African Development Foundation. Each of these programs strengthen our influence abroad, enabling us to prevent crises before they arise, and build relationships with the next generation of global leaders.

Taken together, the cuts in this bill surrender a great deal of global influence to our adversaries. For every step backwards we take on the world stage, they take a step forward. Continually defunding the institutions that support America’s international presence will have serious, lasting consequences.

In little more than a year the Trump administration has squandered decades of American global influence. This bill hinders our ability to reclaim any of it for years to come. It is remarkable, the distance between how much we are willing to devote to war and how little we can spare for peace.

I encourage my colleagues to oppose this bill, and work with Democrats to craft a funding bill that strengthens American international leadership, not weakens it. 

Thank you and I yield back.