Hearing of the House Appropriations Committee - Fiscal Year 2016 State, Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill

Hearing

Thank you, Chairwoman Granger. It is a pleasure to work with you. Thank you, also, to our full committee chairman, Mr. Rogers.

I also want to express my appreciation to the Majority staff: Anne Marie Chotvacs, Craig Higgins, Alice Hogans, Susan Adams -- a new mother-, Clelia Alvarado, David Bortnick, Miki Smith and Johnnie Kaberle; as well as my hardworking staff: Steve Marchese, Erin Kolodjeski and Marin Stein. We have a great team.

I appreciate the Chairwoman's efforts to include many of my and my colleagues' priorities in the bill. However, the House Majority's budget resolution has placed Chairman Rogers and the members of this Committee in a no-win situation, which has led to clear winners and losers in the subcommittee allocations. That's why the Administration's Fiscal Year 2016 budget proposal rightly called for an end to the mindless austerity of sequestration through targeted spending cuts, program integrity measures, and the closure of outdated tax loopholes. There is simply no way this appropriations process can succeed unless we put in place reasonable allocations that make it possible to enact all the appropriation bills.

Despite the inadequate topline, I am pleased this bill sustains our commitment to embassy and diplomatic security to protect our diplomats and development professionals serving on the front lines of our national security efforts.

I also want to thank the Chair for continuing to provide robust funding for basic education. Without the skills to make positive contributions to their societies, uneducated children are powerless to overcome the greater forces that surround them--particularly poverty, conflict, disease, and even terrorism. Education is fundamental to all of our other development goals and remains a moral, economic, and national security imperative.

This bill also continues the unwavering support and robust funding for our close ally and partner Israel and $1 billion to support Jordan, a steadfast ally for peace, called upon to defend regional stability and security.

We also reaffirm our commitment to global health investments including nutrition, maternal and child health, programs to combat tuberculosis, malaria, and pandemic threats, as well as PEPFAR, the Global Fund, and the Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative.

While this bill reflects some wise choices, it unfortunately impairs our ability to meet our objectives abroad in many ways. It includes new politically motivated provisions restricting funding to establish diplomatic relations in Cuba, and a 15% cut to the State Department's operating funds if officials don't feed the Republican sham investigation of Benghazi, hiding behind the veil of transparency.

This cut would come on top of an SFOPS allocation of $6.1 billion below the request, which is simply inadequate in an ever-challenging geopolitical landscape that demands so much of the State Department and USAID to protect our national interests, maintain current programs, and address spontaneous, unanticipated, or simultaneous crises.

Our security is assured by more than military strength. Events over the past year in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, and Central America clearly demonstrate that conflicts, disasters, or other forms of instability in developing countries, however remote, have a very direct effect on our national security interests. Because widespread poverty, lack of opportunity, and severe economic disparity create an environment that is susceptible to violence, political instability, radicalization, extremism, and terrorism, it is in our own national security interest to help resolve international problems in cooperation with developed and developing nations as well as multilateral institutions.

Cutting the request for SFOPS by 11.3% would instead degrade the impact we can have on the health, education, and economic well-being of generations to come.

This bill proposes a drastic retreat from our engagement with the United Nations, the World Bank, and other multilateral organizations. Partnerships with these organizations are vital to diplomatic and security imperatives and our bilateral efforts are strengthened by strong multilateral investments such as UNDP, UN WOMEN, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, which are completely unfunded in this bill.

International economic interdependence is a matter of fact, not opinion. By helping less developed countries provide economic opportunity to their people, we promote our own economic and commercial interests and send a signal of hope for those living at the very margin of subsistence. This is a perfect example of why we need to reauthorize the Export Import Bank.

In addition, failure to raise the caps on UN Peacekeeping undermines our ability to engage cooperatively to prevent the evolution of more dangerous, more costly conflicts. It would be in our best interest to more robustly support international organizations that leverage global efforts to address many of our own priorities.

Unfortunately this bill also lacks the necessary resources to tackle climate change, despite the fact that climate change is expected to affect the safety and economy of the United States and drive increased conflict. Developing countries are likely to be the hardest hit by extreme changes in weather patterns and rising sea levels, which jeopardizes much of the progress we've helped achieve in health and development outcomes as well as economic growth. Additionally, through the development of renewable energy, jobs are created both in the United States and in the developing world.

Drastic cuts in funding for family planning, a reinstatement of the global gag rule, and a prohibition on U.S. contributions to UNFPA in this bill all threaten -- not advance -- efforts to advance women's health and reduce abortions. I continue to stress the importance of ending these backwards policies.

This bill's deep cuts to our engagement overseas will not significantly reduce our deficit or help pay down our debt. They leave us vulnerable to the spread of extremist ideology, substantially weaken our standing in the world, and make it more difficult to achieve our goals on the global stage. Conversely, providing the request level will bolster development and humanitarian efforts, which in turn spur economic progress and have a positive impact on our national security.

I will continue to work with Chairwoman Granger to improve this bill as the process moves forward.

Thank you.

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