Ranking Member Frankel Remarks at Fiscal Year 2026 Department of State and Related Programs Budget Hearing
WASHINGTON — Congresswoman Lois Frankel (D-FL-22), Ranking Member of the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the subcommittee's fiscal year 2026 budget hearing for the Department of State and related programs:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and it is an honor to work with you. And welcome, Mr. Secretary. I hope you are going to find this is a very thoughtful committee, both sides of the aisle. And I like your mission for us to work together.
Ok. So, you know you and I, and Chairman Diaz-Balart, we go way back to our time in the Florida Legislature, and I was very happy to join you at your welcoming ceremony when you came into the State Department. I thought your speech was inspiring. Thank you for that. But today, I come with a deep sense of alarm, and not to be personal in any way, because I have a serious disagreement with some of the policy.
With so many conflicts around the world, we are at a crisis point in America’s foreign policy and humanitarian leadership. The progress of this country, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, that we built over decades, is now being dismantled recklessly, needlessly, and dangerously.
And I say, “Why should Americans care?” and the answer is simple.
Foreign assistance is a strategic investment. It costs less – it has cost less – than 1 percent of our federal budget, yet delivers enormous returns for our national security, our economic competitiveness, our health, and our global standing.
I don’t know if you know this, but my son Ben is both an officer in the United States Marines, an artillery officer. He served all over the country, including Afghanistan and Iraq, and then he went back and served in USAID, also around the world. And he agrees with many military experts who will tell you that investing in soft power means less spending on weapons of war and less brave soldiers coming home in body bags.
USAID, our nation’s premier development agency, has been central to this strategy. It has helped prevent violent extremism through education, stopped deadly pandemics before they reached our shores, and delivered American-grown food to the world’s most desperate corners.
And yet, under this Administration, we are witnessing Elon Musk’s chainsaw taken to the entire system. While taking away food security, health care, and economic opportunities away from the poorest people in the world, Republicans are sadly focused on giving tax cuts to billionaires.
My, my, my, you know my committee often hears me say that. My, my, my. The richest man in the world – not you, Mr. Musk – killing the poorest children in the world.
President Trump’s January 20th executive order launched what was called a “review” of foreign assistance, and it is hard to believe that a responsible review was done in such a short time. It became a chaotic freeze and termination of over 80 percent of foreign aid programs. More than 5,200 across 100 countries – without consultation with Congress, without public criteria, and without a plan, just cancelled.
Let’s talk about what this actually meant on the ground. Just some examples:
Millions of people in the world were left starving, including in Nepal, where a critical nutrition program serving over a million women and children was canceled overnight, leaving no transition, no staff, and no delivery mechanism. And the government has now stopped purchasing therapeutic food because there’s no one to distribute it.
Education for 40 million children around the world was halted, including education and work opportunities in Central America aimed at preventing violence in communities, and making people less likely to migrate, undermining United States' immigration goals.
And in April, we heard from a PEPFAR implementer who told this Committee that HIV testing programs were cut, even while prevention services were still technically funded. It was impossible for pregnant women to know they even needed care, and that itself was projected to add 26 million new infections in just a few years.
And although these programs were lawfully appropriated, and competitively awarded and underway, yet Congress was not consulted. And this is also which was just so sad, thousands of hardworking Americans and foreign partners, who were sent on a mission by us, had their lives turned upside-down in minutes.
Implementing partners were left in the dark. Embassies had no answers. The so-called “life-saving waivers” were announced with fanfare but with no process.
So, instead of building allies, we are leaving vacuums.
And what happens when the rest of the world is hungry? Illiterate? Agitated and afraid for their future? They turn to whoever is offering help.
Whether that is China or an armed terrorist group. China is conducting development projects all over the world, and in Cambodia, just one week after we canceled maternal and child health programs, Chinese officials announced nearly identical efforts. And let’s not forget what happens when disenfranchised men turn to ISIS or al Qaeda.
And here at home, the fallout continues. Florida farmers – actually, all our farmers around the country – have lost international food contracts. U.S. university research labs have gone dark. Nonprofits in our communities have had to lay off workers. Data shared, just recently, reported that in European business bookings in April, it’s down 26 percent because of the message that we are sending to other countries.
We all want efficiency, and we all want accountability. But a serious government doesn’t throw Humpty Dumpty off a wall and hope we can put him back together again, which is what we are afraid of here.
The haphazard and chaotic way, it just makes waste, fraud, and abuse more likely, and its actually reported in our USAID and State Inspectors General in a report, and Mr. Chairman I ask consent to enter into the record two recent reports by the State Department and USAID Offices of Inspector General highlighting the complexity and changes needed to successfully integrate humanitarian, global health and development assistance into the State Department. Thank you.
Mr. Secretary, you mention in your – we have a typewritten statement that you made – and there is a mention of what looks like a $20 billion rescission, I am not sure whether that’s a takeback from the 25 budget or the 26, but I can tell you this – to me, it’s a no-go.
And I do have an ask, and it’s very respectful. And I want to say this again. The people on this committee, we got on this committee because we believe in the value of foreign assistance, and I think every one of us wants to work with you, and this is a thoughtful group of people. So, I am just respectfully suggesting this: that you hold off on the staff and program reductions immediately and develop with us a plan to go forward, because I think if we work together, we can make our country safer, stronger, and more prosperous
Thank you, and I yield back.
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