Ranking Member Frankel Remarks: Fiscal Year 2027 State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee Markup

-- As Prepared for Delivery --

Mr. Chairman,

It is an honor to serve as Ranking Member of this subcommittee, and I appreciate the bipartisan tradition of this work.

Before I get into the details of the FY27 National Security and Department of State bill, I want to go over the here and now. 

We are considering this bill against a backdrop of last year’s reckless and callous dismantling of USAID, the cancellation of billions of dollars in essential programs, and the firing of hundreds of dedicated public servants.

Now, a hollowed-out State Department—lacking the capacity, expertise, and frankly the will—is expected to carry out development and humanitarian programs it was never built to manage.

Programs Congress directed and funded—support for women’s leadership, economic empowerment, peacebuilding, water and sanitation, food security, and family planning—are being ignored.

We are also failing in our efforts to stop the spread of disease.

The Administration is withholding funding from Gavi, an organization that protects children from malaria, polio, yellow fever, and more, and has prevented more than 20 million deaths since 2000.

Congress appropriated $600 million on a bipartisan basis over two years, and not a single dollar has been released, held up by HHS’s obsession with anti-vaccine conspiracies.

As a result, the United States has lost its seat on Gavi’s Board—ceding leadership and influence.

We are strong-arming partners into signing Global Health agreements, holding funding hostage due to unrelated demands like critical mineral deals.

We are claiming programs like PEPFAR are “up and running” while lifesaving medications and prevention services remain out of reach—especially for adolescent girls.

We are witnessing a sweeping and deadly expansion of the Mexico City Policy—now applied across almost ALL non-military assistance and ALL partners, taking a disastrous policy and expanding it to so-called diversity and inclusion, LGBTQ services, and “gender ideology.” 

The Administration is also using funding provided by our Committee to advance its twisted immigration agenda. 

We are hearing reports that more than 1,000 Afghan allies—people who risked their lives to support U.S. forces and are currently supported by the State Department — are being forced to choose between returning to Afghanistan or relocating to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country facing its own humanitarian crisis.

Every day, there is a new story about the United States  coercing countries to accept third-country deportees.

According to a Senate report, the U.S. spent $32 million - funds we appropriated through this bill – in payments to foreign governments with records of corruption and human rights abuses, such as Equatorial Guinea and El Salvador, to take deportees. 

In the middle of this chaos, it is disconcerting that we are marking up our bill without a single hearing with the Secretary of State—and without assurance that this Administration is effectively spending the funds Congress has already provided.

This bill is supposed to project American leadership—through diplomacy, development, and humanitarian aid—but instead, it pulls those tools back at exactly the wrong time.

After four years of cuts totaling $14.4 billion—a staggering 23 percent—this bill cuts another $2.7 billion.

At the same time President Trump is requesting hundreds of billions of dollars more for war.

And let me be clear:

We cannot bomb our way to lasting peace, security, and prosperity.

As a mother whose son served in the Marines and was deployed to two wars, I know it is important that our military remains strong. 

But bombs and drones respond to threats—they do not prevent them.

Soft power does.

Diplomacy prevents costly, deadly war.

Global health programs stop outbreaks before they reach our shores.

Food aid and development programs reduce the desperation that fuels extremism and migration.

Alliances ensure we are not facing threats alone.

This bill walks away from that strategy.

It eliminates funding for the United Nations and UN Peacekeeping at a time when participation in multilateral organizations could not be more important. 

It claws back $1 billion in humanitarian assistance at a time of widespread crisis, conflict, and migration in Sudan, Ukraine, and the Middle East  - where the latest regional war makes matters worse.

This bill prohibits funding for UNFPA, cuts family planning, and reinstates an expanded Global Gag Rule - threatening the health of women and girls globally and shattering their chances of success.

It zeroes out funding for strategic, soft power tools, like the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Inter-American Foundation, and the U.S. African Development Foundation.

It does nothing to help our already short-staffed diplomats, global health experts, and humanitarian responders - while they are forced to do more with less.

This is not leadership. It's reckless and it makes us less safe.

When we retreat from soft power, we create vacuums—and our adversaries are already filling them.

This is not a choice between strength or restraint.

It is about being smart and strong.

Security at home is only possible with effective, robust engagement abroad.

If we want a safer America and a more stable world, we need both:

The strength of our military—and the power of our leadership.

This bill fails that test.

We can—and must—do better.

I urge my colleagues to oppose it and work toward a serious, bipartisan agreement that reflects our values, strengthens our alliances, and truly protects the American people.