Cardin Remains Concerned About Damage Inflicted on State Department, USAID Following Tillerson Address to Employees

Statement

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement Tuesday after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson addressed employees of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development:

"Secretary Tillerson missed an opportunity today to put the State Department back on a path to full health and definitively end his poorly conceived and ill-executed hiring freeze at State and USAID, among the only agencies in the Executive Branch left under such a policy months after the President lifted the wider freeze. We do not yet know the extent of the damage the hiring freeze has done to State and USAID, but it is likely to be felt for years to come. Some steps the Secretary announced today, such as the lifting of the freeze for Eligible Family Members (EFMs), improvements to information technology, and expediting security clearances, are welcome, but these are drops in a bucket compared to the magnitude of issues facing this Department. These problems have been needlessly inflicted by this Administration, and the Secretary confessed he does not have any "wins to put on the board' at this time. It will take a lot of hard work to help State and USAID recover from the damage the freeze and rudderless "redesign' have done, and I am committed to helping them do so.

"The personnel of the State Department and USAID are on the front lines, every day, all around the world protecting our interests, promoting our values, and keeping us safe. From Havana to Tehran to Moscow to Pyongyang to Juba--never have the roles of diplomacy and development been more important to our national security."

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