During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week, Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) condemned the Trump Administration and Sec. Marco Rubio actions within the State Department.
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00:00Representative Stanton. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Our goal as a
00:04committee should be to make sure the State Department is efficient and
00:08effective in driving U.S. foreign policy, and I'd hope to have a frank, serious,
00:14and informed conversation here today about where we should be doubling down
00:18on our strategic investments and where we could do away with bureaucratic blow.
00:23But then last week, Secretary Rubio unilaterally announced a drastic
00:28reorganization of the State Department without any input from the United
00:32States Congress. It's part of a troubling pattern of this administration sidelining
00:36or completely going around the co-equal legislative branch and the people we
00:40represent. While there's no question that American foreign policy has made serious
00:44mistakes over the decades, in nearly every case those failures were made worse
00:48because administrations hid the truth from Congress or they rushed decisions
00:54before the American people could weigh in. For all the Trump administration's
00:58talk about avoiding the foreign policy failures of the past, it's charging full
01:02speed into that same pattern. On the anniversary of the fall of Saigon, we should be
01:08learning from some of America's most painful foreign policy disasters, not
01:13repeating conditions that caused them. This reorganization is just the latest blow
01:18to the tools of American soft power, diplomacy, development, humanitarian
01:23leadership that have helped counter threats from Russia, Iran, and China for
01:27decades. That have boosted the Arizona economy by attracting foreign tourists,
01:32industry giants, and the best and brightest foreign students. That have reduced the
01:37flow of fentanyl by coordinating law enforcement across countries. That have helped
01:42reduce migration by helping people stay in their home countries instead of
01:45overwhelming our southern border even beyond what's already happening. No global
01:50challenge lends itself to quick or easy solutions, but each of them demand
01:56principled, consistent American leadership. Right now the most dangerous lie we can
02:02indulge is that if we if disentangle ourselves from the global economy and our
02:07humanitarian commitments and withdraw from our strategic alliances, that will
02:11somehow return America to greatness. It won't. America's interests are global,
02:18Arizona's interests are global, and our security and prosperity depend on the
02:22strength of our alliances. Ms. Zeya, why is engaging with Congress important, not just
02:28from a constitutional perspective, but from a practical one?
02:31Ms. Well, I think as one of my panelists mentioned earlier, it keeps the work of the State
02:39Department grounded with the will of the American people, but it also that
02:44consultative process, what Secretary Blinken often called, you know, being
02:48present at the takeoff, not just the landing with respect of policies, I think it
02:53produces better outcomes. And when you look at, you know, US humanitarian and human
02:58rights policy and the through line, the continuity, you know, it's built upon one
03:03bipartisan initiative after the other, whether it's the US Refugee Act of 1980 or
03:08the Global Magnitsky Act of 2016. And we've talked about the Trafficking Victims Protection
03:17Act, the International Religious Freedom Act. I seriously doubt that the Department
03:23of State, which I served proudly for most of my adult life, would have come up with
03:27those initiatives on its own, without the leadership and the direction from the US
03:33Congress.
03:34A follow-up question. Do cuts of the kind proposed by Secretary Rubio signal an
03:39understanding of what is required to effectively compete with China, Russia,
03:43Iran, and other adversaries?
03:45I don't see that strategy in what has been presented so far. And, you know, I'll give
03:54you a small example. In addition to being an undersecretary, I was the US Special
03:59Coordinator for Tibetan Issues. Now, this is a role in which we've had decades of
04:06bipartisan support. It is supporting preservation of the unique religious,
04:11cultural, linguistic traditions of the Tibetan people, but it's also about
04:15preventing a certain PRC effort to co-opt the succession of His Holiness the
04:21Dalai Lama. Tibet is considered a core issue for the CCP. It is a focus of
04:29attention where the repression has taken on the enormity of over a million children
04:34and government-forced re-education, so-called boarding schools. The future of
04:41that position is completely unclear on that org chart. We were a small office. We
04:46were able to rally greater international support, devote attention to an issue that
04:52is coming to the fore with the Dalai Lama turning 90 this year. If we walk away from
04:58roles like this, it is literally a free giveaway to the CCP.
05:03That's a very powerful answer. I ran out of time, so with that I'll yield back, Mr. Chairman.
05:08Thank you, Representative Moylan.