Ranking Member Lee Statement to Rules Committee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Funding Bill

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA-12), Ranking Member of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks to the House Rules Committee in opposition to the fiscal year 2025 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations bill:

Thank you, Chair Burgess, Ranking Member McGovern, and Members of the Committee.

I oppose the Republican FY25 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill as drafted.  This is a deeply political, extremist bill that seeks to satisfy the most radical Members of Congress at the expense of our national security, global human rights, and the well-being of our allies.

I must note that our House debate on this particular bill will be carefully watched by people around the world.  I urge this committee to reject floor amendments that would further cause America’s friends and foes to question America’s strength or resolve to tackle the biggest global issues of our day.

This woefully underfunded bill revives many of the bad ideas of last year’s House bill and then doubles down with some new ones. 

First and most dangerously, this bill imposes cuts to our diplomatic, development and humanitarian programs that will weaken America and leave us vulnerable.

The measures Republicans are bringing to the House floor this week would slash our diplomatic and development programs by a shocking 12 percent—while at the same time seeking to increase military spending by eight and a half billion dollars.

These cuts would leave America vastly weakened, and continue a dangerous trend that puts the Pentagon on steroids while leaving diplomacy and development on life support.

I just returned from a bipartisan delegation to Africa, where my colleagues and I—Democrats and Republicans—met with reformers in key African democracies.  These leaders told us they preferred to partner with the United States over China—but too often, American presence and investment was missing in action.

This bill also takes a dishonest approach to the existential threat posed by climate change.  People around the world are confronting the impacts of human-caused climate change right now—life threatening temperatures, crop failures, floods and severe weather.  Many of us are experiencing this in our own districts and hometowns. 

We can’t change the temperature—climate change is here.  The past 12 months have been the hottest ever measured.  But we can help people and communities around the world to cope with the most life-threatening impacts.  This bill leaves us without the tools to respond to this threat.

The bill also wages war on women’s reproductive freedom.  218 million women still do not have access to the tools needed to decide when and how to have a baby, and hundreds of thousands die in childbirth.  This bill makes it harder for women to access care.  It also cuts off funding to UNFPA, the one partner that provides services to mothers and their babies in the hardest places to reach. 

But the most damaging aspect of this bill is the massive abdication and retreat of U.S. leadership around the world.  The bill projects a worldview that sees issues and countries as black and white, good and evil.  If we don’t like everything about an organization or can’t control all their actions, this bill prohibits funding it.  It is our way or the highway.  This is fundamentally undemocratic for a country that stands for democracy.   

Perhaps most telling is that the largest increase in this bill is Foreign Military Financing, while zeroing out the United Nations and outright prohibiting a half a dozen UN bodies.  The message of this bill is more weapons, less cooperation. 

This is not how the world works.  This approach is isolating America.  Yes, human rights violators and countries that do not share our values also participate in these organizations.  But that is why we MUST stay engaged, not walk away.  If we cede the ground to countries with little regard for human rights, we are enabling more injustice.

The world is full of threats that don’t respect borders, from climate change, to pandemics, to assertive dictators.  We can’t stick our head in the sand and hope it will all go away. 

Again, the world will be paying attention to our floor debate.  Our allies are asking if we are serious about protecting human rights and dignity—or if we intend on building a wall around America and telling our allies to go it alone.  I urge this committee to reject amendments and debates that will further isolate and weaken America in the eyes of both our friends and adversaries.

I yield the balance of my time.